TYPES OF 
CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 



TYPES OF 



CELTIC LIFE AND ART 



BY 

F. R. MONTGOMERY HITCHCOCK., M.A. 

AUTHOR OF "CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA," "MYSTERY OF 
THE CROSS," ETC. 

Formerly Scholar, Double Senior Moderator, and University 
Student of Trinity College, Dublin. 



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This Little Volume is 

DEDICATED TO ALL IRISHMEN 

At Home and Abroad. 



CONTENTS. 

Preface... ... ... ... ... i. 

Introduction ... ... ... ... iii. 

Section i. — The Three Free Tribes. 2. — The 
Religion of the Ancient Irish. 3, — The Druids. 
4. — An Ancient Mode of Writing. 5. — Ancient 
Forts and DweUing Places. 6. — Ecclesiastical 
Architecture. 7. — The Celtic Schools and their 
Art. 

Chapter. Page. 

I. — The Celtic Race .. .. .. i 

11. — Celtic Types in Wales .. .. .,11 

III. — Ancient Codes of Honour . . . . 19 

IV. — The Celtic Social System . . . . 29 

V. — Ancient Irish Society — The Chief . . 39 

VI. — ^The Fair Sex of Ancient Erin .. ..52 

VII. — The Ancient Irish Judge . . . . 62 

VIIL— The Irish Bard .. .. .-73 

IX.— The Bardic Order .. .. -.79 

X. — The Celt and the Norman — The Fusion of 

the Nations . . . . . . 92 

XI. — Celtic Monuments — The Cromlech . . 102 

XII. — Irish Tombs and Towers ... .. iii 

XIII.— Tara's Halls .. .. .. ..121 

XIV.— An Ancient Celtic Settlement .. ..128 



CELTIC TYPES OF LIFE AND ART. 



PREFACE. 

This is not in any sense a learned treatise, but 
merely a simple account of some of the types of life 
and art that have been found from time to time in 
Ireland, The writer would, therefore, make three 
requests of his readers. First, that they would bear 
in mind that subjects of controversy in religion and 
politics have been designedly avoided, and that only 
matters of common interest to all creeds and classes 
have been discussed in these pages ; secondly, that 
they v/ill pardon the many omissions, which must, of 
necessity, appear in a work of this nature, which pro- 
fesses only to give certain specimens, and not an ex- 
haustive, dry-as-dust history of all the types that have 
existed from the most ancient times in this land ; 
and, thirdly, that any of colossal learning, into whose 
hands this book may fall, will remember the difficulties 
of the task the writer set before him, and sympathise 
with an attempt, no matter how crude, to give a 
picture of the life and surroundings of the historic, 
but ancient inhabitants of the Green Isle. As 



11. PREFACE. 

references to the various authorities would only serve 
to overload a popular work like the present, they have 
been omitted, except in the most important cases ; 
but no pains have been spared to secure as much 
accuracy as was possible under conditions where 
fancy always embroidered, if it did not contribute, the 
facts. In conclusion, the writer hopes that this publi- 
cation of studies and observations of Irish life Vv^ill 
induce others to study and observe for themselves 
Celtic types, wherever they may be found. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Section i. — The Three Free Tribes. 

The history of Ireland from the remotest times is the 
record of a country that was never permitted to live 
at peace with itself. The Senchtis Mor speaks of 
three noble or free families — Ulidians, Feine of Tara, 
and Erna (I. 80) ; or Ulidians, Goidels of Tara and 
Erna (I. 70), between whom the land was divided. 
The Ulidians (Ulaid) are the Ultonians, the Pictish 
race of Oilam Fodla ; the Erna are the Iverniaris 01 
Munster, and the Goidels are the Celtic conquerors, 
who are called both Galeoin and Feine. The work of 
Ptolemy, the geographer, which mentions several 
Irish names of places, gives an equivalent in Greek 
for Ulidians, and mentions a river lernos, identified 
with the River Maine in Kerry, flowing through the 
territory of the Ivernioi, or Erna.* The Ulidians, who 
gave their name to (7/-ster, as the Lagin (Ueyn), or 
spearmen mercenaries, who restored Labraid, the exile, 
to his throne, gave their name to LetnstQv. and Mum- 
han, large, gave its name to MunstQr, and Conn left his 
mark on Ccwwaught, seem to have been forced north- 
wards by the Milesians, who compelled them to 
* Professor Rhy's Studies in Early Irish History, p. 21. 



iv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

abandon Tara, and to entrench themselves in their 
great rath at Emania, better known as Navan {N 
representing the article in Irish) fort. Within that 
ancient palace, the site of which is marked by a 
circular rampart and fosse, enclosing some eleven 
acres, about a mile and a half to the west of Armagh, 
was a house called Craedhruadh (Creeveroe), where the 
Red Branch Knights had their quarters. Of these 
knights, Conchobar mc Nessa and his friend, Cuchul- 
lin, were the most famous. From Conall, his son, 
were descended the Dai nAraide, i.e., the tribe of 
Araide, generally known as Dalaradians, whose terri- 
tory in Down extended northwards to Mount Slemish, 
(Mount Mis) where it met the lands of Dal-riada, 
which were occupied by Scots, whom Bede describes 
as " going forth from Hibernia. under the leadership 
of Reuda, and securing for themselves, either by 
friendly or hostile measures, settlements among the 
Picts, which they occupy to this day. From the 
name of their leader, they are called Dalreudini ; 
for Dal, in their language, signifies a part." 

It is a remarkable thing that the principal tribes 
that divided Scotland between themselves in that and 
the succeeding ages, the Picts and Scots, should be 
then found contesting, inch by inch, the counties of 
Antrim and Down ; the former occupying the southern 
districts, and the latter the northern. The Scots of 
the Irish Dalriada, as Bede tells us, founded a second 
Dalriada in Argyleshire, which gradually developed 



INTRODUCTION. v. 

into the ruling power of Scotland, as the Picts were 
subdued. The relations of the Picts and Scots in 
Ireland and Scotland do not seem, however, to have 
been always hostile. Bede, in his interesting account 
of the origin of the matriarchy of the Picts, tells us, 
that the Picts on landing in Ireland requested the 
Scots to give them both land and wives. The Scots, 
however, refused to part with their territory, politely 
suggesting that there would be ample room for the 
Picts in Britain, but they gave them wives on the 
condition that, if ever any dispute should arise in re- 
gard to the succession, they should select their king 
from the female royal line. 

The Pictish settlement in Dalaradia was eventually 
destroyed by the three Collas, who were Celtic, or 
Goidelic, descendants of Erem, or Erimon (gen. case). 
The year A.D, 332 saw the destruction of the great Navan 
fort, A common disaster seems then to have drawn 
together the Picts and Scots, as all invaders from 
Ireland came to be called in Britain ; for in 360 we 
find Roman Britain attacked by Picts from the North 
and Scots from Ireland. And a century or more 
later the Picts of Galloway, who had been converted 
to Christianity by Ninian, who built a stone church 
at Whitern called Candida Casa, or White House, 
joined with the Scots settlers in Argyle in a barbarous 
raid upon the coasts of Ireland, which called forth an 
indignant protest from S. Patrick in his Letter to their 
leader Coroticus — one of the Saint's genuine works. 



VI. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Again, in 560, we hear of Brude, the King of the 
Picts, whose seat was Craig Patrick, in Inverness, 
inflicting a terrible defeat on the Scottish Colony in 
Dalaradia, Here another Irish saint, in the person of 
S. Columba, came to the rescue. He was a Scot, 
but while at Bangor, in Co. Down, had devoted him- 
self, with the assistance of SS. Comgall and Canice, 
who were Picts, to teach the Picts of Dalaradia. In 
563, with twelve companions, he rowed away from 
Ireland in a small wicker-work boat, covered with 
hide, well known on the west coast as a currach or 
coracle, believing that he would never see the shores 
of his beloved Erin again. For that was his punish- 
ment. At last he landed in the isle of lona, near 
Oban. Here he and his companions remained for a 
time until they were ready for their mission to Brude. 
Then they went to Craig Patrick, and with but little 
difficulty persuaded " the powerful King of thePictish 
nation" to become a Christian. This was the begin- 
ning of the Irish mission to the Picts. 

We come now to the second great family in Ire- 
land, the Feine of Tara, a term which, according to 
Professor Atkinson, means the conquering race. These 
Goidels or Celts were, according to the same authority, 
Teutonic invaders. And Professor Rhys declares that 
there is evidence *' of a certain amount of contact, 
social and political, between the Celts and Britons on 
the Continent." M. de Jubainville gives instances of 
words such as Gothic reiks " a prince," and Mod. 



INTRODUCTION. vii. 

Ger. geissel, *' a hostage," which may have been 
derived from or by the Celts before they came to these 
islands. It Is, therefore, more probable that the Celts 
came from northern rather than from southern 
Europe to our shores. This theory overthrows the 
idea that these Milesian settlers were descended from 
one Miled or soldier of Spain. The name Goidel, 
which is not to be confounded with Irish gaill, 
" foreigner," as in Fingall (white stranger), and 
Baldoyle (town of Dougall or dark stranger) probably 
means warrior, and is the same as the Latin Miles, 
which was shortened in Irish into Mil, We shall see, 
as we proceed, that " Warriors " was a most suitable 
name for these invaders of Erin. Feine or Feni was 
the Celtic speech. Cor mac's glossary describes one 
of the three sages who compiled the Senchus Mor as 
Sui berla Feine, or learned in the language of the 
Feine. 

The third great" family of the Senchus Mor, the 
Erna, were probably the Ivernian inhabitants, who 
gave their name, Erin, to the island in the various 
forms, Ivera, Ivvera, Iverna, Eriu, Erin. These were 
driven westward by the Celts, and their descendants 
even to our day bear a strong resemblance in com- 
plexion, features, and disposition to the Spanish inhabi- 
tants of the Pyrenees, who were called Iberi as the Irish 
were by Columbanus. Dark, handsome faces, tall, 
slight figures, lethargic habits, especially the last, are 
the distinguishing marks of both peoples. This was 



viii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

remarked to the writer by a friend who had come to 
Ireland after spending some time in the Pyrenees, and 
who was particularly struck by the refined and 
pleasant manners of the Irish, their sympathy, 
courtesy, and generosity. But it is not a rare thing 
for the tourist in Kerry to find that his driver is en- 
joying the sleep of the just, even with the reins in his 
hands. The similarity between these peasantry can- 
not be altogether explained as due to the wrecking of 
the Spanish vessels of the Armada on the west coast. 
And the fair-haired Kerryman was not quite accurate 
when he described his dark-visaged neighbours as 
" some of the Spaniards who were drowned in the 
Armada ! " The Spanish appearance of the houses 
and people of Dingle may be the result of a Spanish 
settlement there in former days for fishing purposes ; 
but the trading connections between Ireland and Spain 
go back to very early times. 

Owen More, better known as Mog Muadhat, the 
Munster rival of Conn of the Hundred Battles, whose 
half of Ireland was called Leth Moga, Conn's being 
Leth Cuinn, obtained his wife Beara, after whom he 
called a district Beerhaven, and many of his soldiers 
from the King of Spain. See also " Book of 
Leinster " 319b, where we find mention of the court- 
ship of Momera (tochmarc Momera), another Spanish 
princess. Tacitus, who refers to the trade of Ireland 
with the Roman Empire, describes Ireland as lying 
midway between Spain and Britain ; and Orosius, a 



INTRODUCTION. ix. 

Spanish historian of the 5th century, mentions a 
lighthouse at Brigantia, in the north-west of Spain, 
which was built to keep watch on Britain. From this 
we may infer that pirates were attracted from Britain 
by the vessels that traded between the west of Ireland 
and Spain. Galway city itself has also many Spanish 
features in its arched gateways and courts ; and in its 
rude sculpture and quaint architecture has reminded 
more than one visitor of the Moorish cities of Granada 
and Valencia, which latter gave its name to the beau- 
tiful island off the Kerry coast called by the Irish 
people Darrery (dairbhre), from its oaks and the 
ancient abode of the famous Druid magician Mog 
Ruith (Servant of the Wheel), while the fishing 
quarter known as the Ciaddagh is distinctly Spanish 
with its ov/n peculiar laws and its own "kins;," Some 
years ago the writer enquired after the health of his 
majesty of the fishing fleet, but was informed by an 
intelligent fisherman that he was very aged and had 
retired to the Union. The " Tribes " who settled 
here in the 13th century devoted themselves to com- 
merce and trade chiefly with. Spain. The Lynch, 
who figures so tragically like another Brutus, i-^n the 
annals of the City, traded largely with that country ; 
and the story is that it was to avenge the murder of a 
Spanish merchant that he executed his own son. 
There are also many Celtic words in the Basque 
language ; which fact inspired many. Professor Rhys 
amongst them, to attempt to establish an affinity 



X. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

between the Basque and the ancient languages of 
Ireland, Celtic and Pictish. It is also a remarkable 
fact that the Breton fishermen, who frequently visit 
the Kerry waters, are able to make themselves under- 
stood to the Irish-speaking folk whose dialect of Irish 
is very different from that spoken in Connaught, and 
that the Welsh sailors can converse with the inhabi- 
tants of the Breton ports. This shows that we have 
Celtic relations in France as well as Iberian relatives 
in Spain. 

But the strangest connection between the West of 
Ireland and Northern Spain is shown by the plants 
that are peculiar to both districts, Cybele Hihernica 
mentions several members of the Cantabrian groups 
in Kerry, among them the Saxifraga Umbrosa, the 
common London Pride, the Saxifraga Geu'm, the 
Saxifraga Hirsuta, the Arbutus Unedo, and the 
Pinguicula Graridiflora. ThQ Arbutus Unedo is found 
in great profusion at Killarney, but less frequently in 
the neighbourhood of GlengarrifF; while the 
Piiiguicula Or andi flora grows even more luxuriantly 
in Kerry than in the Pyrenees. These facts 
suggest, at least, that similar atmospheric conditions 
prevail in both places, for it is well known that 
environment enters largely into the making of both 
plants and men ; and that the congenial nature of 
their surroundings is more or less the cause of the 
survival of the Iberian type of man and plant in 
Kerry. 



INTRODUCTION. xi. 

The West of Ireland has so many attractions in its 
magnificent sea coast, mountains, and glens that it is 
possible that the man who observed, that when he 
had got as far to the West as he could, he under- 
stood why the wise men came from the East, would 
have made an exception in its favour. 

From what we have seen of these three noble 
families of the Senchus Mor, we can form a tolerably 
distinct picture of the island divided between 
Ivernians, Celts, and Ulidians, the Celts gradually 
gaining the upper hand, though unable to completely 
reduce Ulidians or Ivernians, or banish them from 
their mountain fastnesses ; while behind the scenes 
niove the primitive inhabitants, the Fir-sidhe {the 
men of the hills) and the Beann-sidhe (Banshees, or 
women of the hills), to trouble their conquerors with 
their magic and their spells. In such a condition of 
things there could be no peace, and much of the racial 
hatred found at the present day in Ireland goes back 
to the ancient struggles, both for existence and 
supremacy in the island, the balance of power in 
which seems to have been always held by three 
distinct powers — Ulidians, Celts, and Ivernians, in 
the times alluded to in the Senchus Mor ; Celts, 
Danes, Normans, under the Plantagenet Kings or 
Lords of Ireland ; and towards the end of the 14th 
century by " Wild Irish, our enemies ; Irish rebels ; 
and obedient English," as they were described by 
Richard II. A three-cornered fight seems to have 



xii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

been the fate of Erin, which was most unlucky in 
not having" been invaded by the Romans, the only 
power which could have welded these heterogeneous 
elements into one great nation, and taught them, as 
they did the British, the difference between a battle 
and a campaign. 



Section 2,— The Religion of the Ancient 

Irish. 

There can be no doubt that these primitive peoples 
had some form of religion. What it was we are left 
to infer from the survival of apparently early super- 
stitions, which the Celt would never willingly let die, 
in connection with wells, sacred trees, and pillar 
stones. The most conspicuous object of worship in 
those early days was the great pillar idol called Crom 
or Cenn Cruach, which stood in a large plain, Mag 
Slecht, or the plain of Adoration or Slaughter, near 
Ballymagawran, in the county of Cavan. It was 
plated with gold and surrounded by twelve smaller 
stones, which are supposed by some to represent the 
signs of the Zodiac. In the Vita Tertia of S. Patrick 
it is said that Laoghaire used to worship there, and 
that the Saint visited the place and struck down the 
idol with his staff. The cult of Crom Cruaich seems, 



INTRODUCTION. xiii. 

however, to have been out of fashion for some time 

previous, and we can hardly believe that the Celts of 

the 5th century offered human sacrifices to this idol, 

and must consider the notice of such practices in 

connection with this idol found in the " Book of 

Leinster " : 

*' Milk and corn 
They used to ask of him urgently, 
In return for a third of their offspring ; 
Great was the horror and the wailing there." 

as referring back to very early tim.es. For Cormac 

Mac Art, vvho was King of Ireland at the beginning 

of the second century, and who had learned something 

of Christianity in his warlike expeditions to Britain, 

not only left orders that his body should not be buried 

in Celtic fashion with his pagan ancestors in Brug-na- 

Boyne, but on the other side of the river at Ross-na- 

ree, the wood of the kings, where an ancient burial 

place has been recently discovered on Mr. Osborne's 

estate, but is also said to have defied ancient Crom in 

words like these of Sir Samuel Ferguson : 

*' Crom-Cruach and his sub-gods twelve," 
Said Cormac, '* are but carven treen ; 

The axe that made them, haft or helve, 
Had worthier of our worship been. 

But He who made the tree to grow, 

And hid in earth the iron-stone, 
And made the man with mind to know 

The axe's use, is God alone." 

But it is quite possible that some lingering belief in a 
spirit inhabiting this stone, such as Lieutenant Conder 



xiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

found among the Arabs of Palestine, required to be 
exorcised by the crozier, or " bachall " of the Saint. 

The worship of trees seems also to have been pre- 
valent from the use of the word bile, or sacred tree> 
which occurs in local names, such as Moville and 
Rathvilly, Under these trees the May fires may 
have been kindled. For The Four Masters mention a 
place called Bile-teineadh (Billa-tinne), the sacred tree 
of the fire, identified by O'Donovan with Coill-a'- 
bhile, the wood of the sacred tree, now Billywood, 
near Moynalty, in Meath. The ' ' Book of Leinster " 
mentions five of these trees — the Eo Rossa, a yew 
tree ; the Eo Mugna, an oak ; the Bile Dathij the 
Bile Tortain and the Crseb Uisnig, ash-trees, all o* 
which were destroyed in the time of the sons of Aedh 
Slaine in the seventh century. Eo Mugna was a tree 
of extraordinary size and fertility according to the 
poet Ninnine, who described its top as being *' as broad 
as a plain," and declared that it bore fruit three times 
a year. Eo Rossa, which stood in county Monaghan, 
was bestowed by S. Molaisse on the saints of Ireland ; 
and in the Life of S. Moiling, we'read that he employed 
an architect, Goban Saer, who is said to have erected 
one of the famous Round Towers to carve an oratory 
out of the portion which fell to his lot, but that the 
Saint was not very happy in it. In the Life of S. 
Berach, also in the '^ Book of Leinster," we read of a 
Druid declining a contest with Berach, unless it would 
be held under a certain tree, tenanted, as he thought, 



INTRODUCTION. xv. 

by a demon friendly to himself. Indeed every tribe 
seems to have its own sacred tree under which its 
chief was elected. One of the greatest triumphs for 
one tribe to achieve over another was to cut down its 
tree. The Four Masters, under 981, describe the 
uprooting of the sacred tree of the O'Briens, the bile 
of Magh-adhar in Clare, by Malachy the Ard-ri. And 
in 1 1 1 1 the Ulidians cut down the sacred trees of the 
O'Neills at Tullahogue, for which deed of sacrilege 
they had to pay a heavy fine or eric. Some of these 
trees which remain are called Bell trees, a corruption 
of bile. 

The people also worshipped the spirit of the wells, 
water being considered sacred in times when it was 
so essential to life. Tirechan in the Book of Armagh 
relates that S. Patrick came to a well called Slan, 
which the Druids worshipped as divine ; and Adamnan 
in his Life of S. Columba tells us that saint discovered 
the worship of a certain well among the Picts, who, 
"seduced by the devil, paid divine honour to the 
fountain." In Christian times the earliest churches and 
oratories, for the purpose of Baptism and because of 
the ancient associations, which were always respected, 
were built in the neighbourhood of these wells, many 
of which are even now visited by pilgrims and 
penitents on the day of the patron saint, and are 
possessed, in many cases, of medicinal properties. 
Among the best known are the wells of SS. Doulough, 
Canice, and Declan. On a certain day in August the 



xvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

peasantry used to visit the well in front of Slane 
Castle, and after hanging out their rags on the grass 
to propitiate the spirit of the waters, would then resort 
to the ancient stone of the apostle near the hermitage 
of S. Ere. Similar devotions are held on July 24 at 
the well and stone of S. Declan at Ardmore, near 
Waterford. The frequency with which the word tobar 
(well) occurs in the names of townlands and towns, 
e.g., Tobercurry and Tipperary, testifies to the early 
veneration for wells. There is, moreover, a legend 
that Boan, a beautiful woman, who was also a 
magician, insisted on seeing the waters of a well, the 
sight of which was forbidden to mortal eyes, and that 
the well in its wrath rushed upon her in a torrent 
which still flows as the Boyne to the sea. 

The principal object of worship, however, seems to 
have been the Sun ; many of the rites connected with 
it being preserved to our own times. The bon-fires 
kindled in many places on St. John's Eve are the 
survival of the ancient fires kindled in the sun- 
worship, and known as Beltane* or Druidic fires of the 
first of May, originally instituted by Tuathal, King of 
Ireland, in the first century at Usnagh, in Westmeath, 
and described in Cormac's Glossary as " two goodly 
fires which the Druids were used to make, with great 
incantations on them, and they used to bring the 
cattle between them against the diseases of each year." 

* This word is explained in Cormac's Glossory as Bil-tene, 
goodly fire ; by some as equivalent to Baals fire ; by others as 
Ea Beal-tine, the day of the passage of the fire. 



INTRO D UCTION. xvii. 

It was thus a passing through fire as the best deriva- 
tion of the word suggests. Keating tells us that the 
custom of kindling '• two fires in honour of the pagan 
God " was universal. There are souvenirs of these 
fires in the endings teine or tinny, " fire/' as in Kil- 
tinny and sollus " light," as in Ardsollus or hill of 
light in Clare. Samhuin, or the November feast, was 
originally instituted by the same monarch at Tlachtga, 
now the Hill of Ward, near Athboy. On this day, 
the Feis, or Convention of Tara, was also held. And 
on the first of November, as Dr. Joyce remarks, " the 
people practise many observances which are un- 
doubted relics of ancient pagan ceremonials."* S. 
Patrick in his Confession alludes to sun-worship in the 
passage : — " All that worship it, unhappy beings, 
shall assuredly be punished ; whereas we who believe 
in and adore the true Sun, Jesus Christ, shall never 
perish." In the same work the Saint tells us that 
when he was one day calling Helias (Elias or Eli, my 
God), the Sun (Helios) rose up in all its splendour. 
Professor Bury writes : — *' If there was any one 
divinity who was revered and worshipped thoughoutthe 
land it was probably the Sun." It is not improbable 
that the great pillars of Stonehenge, which the stone 
circle at Baltonny, near Raphoe, resembles on a smaller 
scale, were once connected with the worship of the 
Sun. But it is to be inferred from the ancient Hymn 

* A capitular of Charlemagne condemned similar solstice 
fires in the Bavarian highlands as a remnant of paganism. 



xviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

of S. Patrick that all the elements invoked in it, the 

light of the sun, the brightness of the moon, the speed 

of the lightning, the swiftness of the wind, the depth 

of the sea, the stability of the earth, and firmness of the 

rock were held in veneration by the ancient Celt, who 

possibly felt in some dim way the presence of a 

mysterious Power in and behind the waters, winds, 

hills, and rocks : — 

*' Thus the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness. 
Touched God's right hand in that darkness, 
And were lifted up and strengthened." 

Other divinities play a part in Celtic mythology and 
folk-lore, such as Badb, the goddess of war ; Nuadu, 
a sea divinity ; and Brigit, a goddess with a fire ritual, 
whose place was afterwards taken in the hearts of the 
people by the Irish S. Brigid of Kildare, who also had 
a fire, which is said to have been never allowed to go 
out. But the great mass of people seemed to have 
no religion beyond a vague fear of the Earth-Gods 
and the fairies, the Fir-Sidhe and Bean-Sidhe, or 
Banshees. It will be remembered that the daughters 
of Laogaire, Ethne and Fedelm, in Tirechan's story 
(" Book of Armagh"), when they saw S. Patrick and 
his companions seated at the well, thought there 
was something uncanny about them, and that they 
were men of the Sidhe, or Gods of the Earth or appari- 
tions. The word Sidhe which may come, as Todd 
shows, either from the Lat. Sedes, habitation or the 
Celtic Side, a blast of wind, has an unpleasant creepy 



INTRODUCTION. xix. 

feeling about it. The men of the Sidhe are supposed to 
have been the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the 
Goddess Danaan, who tried in vain to prevent the 
Milesians from landing in Ireland by throwing magi- 
cal spells upon the seas and raising storms. In an 
old Irish book, the " History of the Cemeteries," 
Cormac Mac Art is said to have been killed by the 
Siabhra, i.e., the Tuatha de Danaans, for they were 
called " Siabhras." Two of these Sidhs are celebrated 
places. Sidh Boov, occupied by Bove Derg, was on 
the Portumna shore of Lough Derg, one of the most 
beautiful and poetic lakes in Ireland; while the 
far-famed Rock of Cashel, the Caisel-na-Rig, or " stone 
fort of the kings," which was built in the days of S. 
Patrick by Core McLugdach, previously rejoiced in the 
name Sidh-dhruim [Sheerim], or fairy ridge. The 
Irish family name Shean or Shane may have some 
connection with the home of the fairies. 

Some of the fairy queens who presided over these 
abodes, and who now go by the vulgar name of 
Banshees, were quite celebrated persons in their own 
day and way. Cleena was the potent queen of the 
fairies of South Munster. Her name is well known 
in the neighbourhood of Skibbereen, where she has 
her special wave, Tonn-cleena, and her special rock, 
Carrig-cleena. But north Munster was under the spell 
of a charming fairy called Eevil or ''the Beautiful 
One," who resided near Killaloe in Crageevil, or 
Eevils' rock, now called Craglea, grey rock. She 



XX. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

appeared, it is said, to two of the Dalcassian heroes 
before the battle of Clontarf, even to Dunlang 
O'Hartlgan, a companion of Murchadh, Brian's son, 
and to Brian himself, warning both of the danger in 
their path. 

The Celtic peoples were nothing if not superstitious. 
Alive to all kinds of presentiments and ''starry 
influences," which the more obtuse Saxon ignores, 
their principal source of knowledge is tradition, and 
their chief amusement to sit round the fire at night 
and tell and hear ghost stories. The Cornishmen are 
not unlike their Irish brethren in this respect. The 
Celts feel ghosts and hideous spectres in thorn bushes, 
especially where they grow in clusters, in lonely glens, 
solitary lakes'^, weird ridges, coffin-shaped wells. There 
is a cluster of thorn bushes on one of the private 
avenues in Kinnitty which only a Saxon would pass 
with impunity after dark. There is another solitary 
thorn bush in the middle of the road that runs between 
Seirkeiran, the ancient residence of S. Keiran, and 
Leap Castle, one of the most interesting and 
historical fortresses in Ireland, which the Celt is 
particular to pass on his right hand. The story is 
that a Saxon driver taking the wrong side overturned 
his coach and broke his leg. The Irish were also in 
constant fear of an unpleasant Goblin called Pooka, 
Shakespeare's Puck, who has given his name to 

* e.g. The names Dullowbush or phantom bush ; Gillagancan, 
the headless man's lake ; Drumarraght, the ridge of the ghost ; 
Drumahaire, the ridge of the air- demons, &c. 



INTRODUCTION. xxi. 

Poolaphuca in Wicklow, and to Boheraphuca, an 
uncanny lane that strikes at right angles the truly 
magnificent mountain road that runs from Kinnitty 
to Roscrea, with the picturesque hills of the Slieve 
Bloom on one hand and the verdant plains and 
hills of Ely O' Carroll on the other. The writer has 
ridden past the place at all hours, but has never seen 
anything so far of the Pooka. Should the number of 
Irish names of places which the word Devil helps to 
form, such as '' The Devil's Bit," '^ The Devils' Glen," 
** The Devil's Punchbowl," suggest to the Saxon 
stranger that the Irish were addicted to Devil worship, 
we have only to remind him of the jarvey's classic 
retort to the Cockney's statement that his Satanic 
Majesty seemed to be the principal landlord in Ire- 
land : " Aye, indeed, but he is an absentee, and mostly 
lives in London." But it does seem a gruesome 
thing on the part of the Irish to hand over dismal 
lakes like Lougandoul, and deserted residences like 
Deune Castle to the keeping of such an one. 

S. Patrick is said to have freed the country from 
dragons and demons when he visited Croagh Patrick, 
and banished the demons to Lugnademon, but both 
species seem to survive and flourish, at any rate, in 
Irish topography. For we have a hill of the serpents 
in Knocknabeast, a lake infested by some kind of 
obnoxious dragon, the terror of prehistoric bathers, 
in Loughnapiast, and a fort in the possession of some 
unsavoury reptiles in Lisnapaste. 



xxu. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

Section 3. — The Druids, 

From this general account of the superstitious fears 
of the Celts in Ireland, we return to the Druids, by 
whose hands the priestly rites, whatever they may 
have been, were performed, and of whose tenets and 
practices Caesar, who also refers to the " piled 
up mounds or earthen tumuli in their sacred 
places," gives an invaluable account in the 
sixth book of his commentary De Bello Gallico. As 
the Druid organisation seems to have been universal 
among the Celtic peoples of Britain, Ireland, and 
Gaul, Caesar's description gives a fairly accurate idea 
of the system that prevailed in Ireland. Professor 
Rhys, in his Studies [p. 35], however, draws attention 
to one mistake of that Roman soldier and historian 
which he corrects in a way that is flattering to Irish 
pride. Csesar's remark was to the effect that the 
order of the Druids (B.C. VI. 13) originated in 
Britain and passed over into Gaul, and that those who 
wished to study the system frequently went to 
Britain. Professor Rhys says, " he should, when 
speaking of the seat of druidic learning, not have 
named Britain alone, but Erin likewise or rather, 
perhaps, Erin first and foremost." 

These Druids seem to have been not only most 
influential in Church and State, but also to have been 
highly educated persons. According to Csesar, they 
instructed the youth in the motions of the stars, the 



INTRODUCTION. xxiii. 

greatness of the world, natural science or botany, and 
the power and authority of the immortal Gods. They 
committed to memory a great number of verses, and 
used Greek characters for ordinary matters of life. 
They led a life of lettered ease, immune from taxation 
and military service, belonged to the better classes, 
and were well dressed and highly respected. Strabo 
divides the order into three classes, the Druids, who 
were engaged in natural science and moral philo- 
sophy ; the Vates, who performed the sacrifices ; the 
Bards, who were the composers and singers of hymns 
and songs. 

Lucan, the unhappy Roman poet and rival of Nero, 
gives this interesting description of the teaching of 
the Bards and Druids in his Pharsalia [1.444-465]. 
*' Ye Bards, whose praise transmits to a distant age the 
names of fallen braves, immune from fear of us have 
sung your many lays. Ye Druids have returned from 
scenes of war to rites barbaric and sacrifices unspeak- 
able. To you alone it is given to know or not to 
know the Gods and divinities of Heaven. Sacred 
groves in deep retiring glades are your dwelling- 
places. And your doctrine is, that the shades do not 
seek the silent abodes of Erebus or the pallid realms 
of Dis profound, but that the same spirit moves the 
limbs in another cycle. If you comprehend your 
teaching, it is this, that death stands between this life 
and that. Surely the nations of the North are happy 
in their error, which relieves them of that greatest 



xxiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

fear, the dread of death. And so men rush reck- 
lessly upon cold steel; and their souls can death 
defy, for they think it a coward's part to spare a life 
that will return." From this passage we learn that our 
Celtic ancestors believed in the immortality of the 
soul. It is doubtful whether it was such a belief that 
gave courage to Lucan himself when he had his veins 
opened by order of the Emperor. Csesaralso states that 
the Druids taught the transmigration of souls. We 
may compare the expressions Moy Mell, the plain of 
honey, that awaits the arrival of the Celt and Erdathe, 
one of the Druidic terms preserved in the Book of 
Armagh, which is said to mean '' the Day of Judg- 
ment of the Lord." [Tripartite, II. 308]. This 
suggests a reason why S. Patrick in the beginning of 
his Lorica or Breastplate Hymn, referred to God as 
"the Creator of judgment" {dail is gen. of dal ; duile 
would mean elements) ; and gives an explanation for 
his own mighty curse, modebrod^ " My God's judg- 
ment," a malediction which only the rash would 
provoke and which the Irish saints possessed.* 

The Druids were also magicians. The derivation 
of the name is uncertain. It was originally supposed 
to be connected with deru, oak. But the Irish name 
was Draithe, soothsayers. Druidecht, however, means 
magic in Irish ; and in the Irish version of the Bible, 
the magicians of Egypt are called, "the Druids of 

* The malediction upon Egfrid, King of Northumbria, when 
plundering the plains of Meath, which eventualUy, it is said, 
brought disaster upon him. 



INTRODUCTION^ xxv. 

Egypt," and the Magi of the East are styled " the 
Druids from the East." The Druids used inscribed 
rods of yew, or magic wheels in their profession. 
*' Mug ruith, or servant of the wheel " (the wheel, 
doubtless, being connected with solar worship), being 
the name of a Druid whose acquaintance we have 
already made. They evidently employed such arts, 
but without avail, against St. Patrick. With this in- 
tent they drove left-hand wise, or in an opposite course 
to the sun, when they went forth to encounter him on 
the hill of Slane. Lucan's expression, '' moremque 
sinistrum sacrorum," may possibly refer to this method 
of going leftwards round a place, or person, in order 
to throw an evil spell upon it or him. Professor Rhys 
states that there is a pile of stones near Lough Case 
in Mayo, *' round which stations are made, deshd 
(rightwards), except in the case of maliciously disposed 
persons, who occasionally come on the sly in the dead 
of night and go round widdershins in order to raise 
storms to destroy crops and to kill cattle." 

An interesting point about the Druids was their 
peculiar style of tonsure, which was adopted by the 
Celtic clergy, and which consisted in shaving the head 
de aure ad aurem, from ear to ear, and allowing the 
hair to grow long at the back. The two Druids, 
who had the charge of Laogaire's daughters' educa- 
tion, Mael and Caplait, were converted by S. Patrick 
and gave rise to the Irish proverb, Cosmail Mael do 
Chaplaity " Mael is like to Caplait." For Mael, meaning 



xxvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

bald (of Mull, bald headland), signifies the native 
tonsure, and Caplait (capillatus, or shorn) indicates 
the foreign tonsure ; and the Celtic clergy resisting 
the new style of tonsure said, " There is nothing to 
quarrel about, for a Mael is as good as a Caplait.'^ 

There is a remarkable prophecy of the Druids con- 
cerning Christianity, so remarkable that it is suspiciously 
like an oracle post eventum. Of this three different ver- 
sions are given : * one in the Latin text of Muirchu ; 
a second in the life of S. Patrick, called the Vita Secunda 
in Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, and a third in an 
Irish gloss on the Hymn Genair Patraicc ascribed to 
the poet Fiacc, a bishop of Slebte and contemporary 
of S. Patrick. The second of these versions might be 
rendered : " A man will come with a decorated crown, 
and with a staff of curved head ; and he will chant 
(charm away ?) impiety from his table, from the 
eastern part of the house, all his people responding : 
' So be it,' ' so be it.' " 

Many of the Druids joined the ranks of the Christian 
clergy. Among such was Dubthach, who is des- 
cribed by Muirchu as " an excellent poet," and in 
Cormac's Glossary as one of *' the nine props of the 
SenchusMor,'" which is said to have been compiled 
A.D. 438. At Killeen Cormac, in Kildare, is a very 
ancient Druid stone with a Latin inscription I WERE 
DRVVIDES (A Druid of I wera= Ireland) (Rhys), 

* Professor Bury in " Tradition of Muirchu's Text," Herma- 
thena, XXVIII. 



INTRODUCTION. xxvii. 

and with an ogam cutting, Ovanos avi Ivacattos, 
meaning, (the stone) of Ovanus, the descendant of 
Ivacattus. We owe the decipherment of both inscrip- 
tions to the researches of two briUiant scholars, Pro- 
fessors Bury and Rhys. 

A laudable attempt to read the inscription had been 
previously made by the late Father Shearman, who 
interpreted the Latin as IV VERE DRUVIDES, "the 
four true Druids " ; i.e., Dubthach and his three sons. 
Another ancient tomb stone, at Crag, in Co. Kerry, bears 
the inscription VELITASLUGUTTI,(thetomb)of the 
poet Lugut,* who was most probably a pagan Druid. 
Professor Rhys describes another Druid stone found 
in the Isle of Man. A sign of the complete conquest 
of Druidism is found in the hymn ascribed to S. 
Columba, from which Bishop Reeves quoted the 
line : — 

Is 6 mo drai Crist mac De 

My Druid is Christ the Son of God, 

This short sketch of those interesting personages 
of ancient history which we have, from our child- 
hood's days, pictured to ourselves as patriarchal figures 
with flowing beards, robed in white garments, bearing 
mistletoe in their hands, armed with sickles and chant- 
ing weird songs, might be concluded with a reference 
to Caesar's Commentary (De B. G. VI. i6), where 
they are described as assisting in human sacrifices 
which were offered by the sick and wounded on the 

* Macalister Studies in Irish Epigraphy. 



xxviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

principle that the gods require " a man's life for the 
life of a man." The Welsh have still an order of Bards 
with Druids and Archdruids, but their office is a mild 
one in comparison. 



Section 4. — An Ancient Mode of Writing. 

We would recommend anyone who desires to know 
something of the customs and capabilities of the Celtic 
race to visit the collection of Irish Antiquities in the 
Dublin Science and Art Museum with Mr. Thomas 
J. Westropp's excellent guide in his hand. Among 
the most interesting of these relics are the Ogam 
stones, which are easily discernible from the strange 
markings on their sides. This form of script is called 
Ogam. If you take a stone chisel and a fairly large 
stone with a square corner and, starting about three 
inches from the edge, drive a slope score with the chisel 
to the edge you have an Ogam consonant. Dint the 
edge itself and you have an Ogam vowel. Variations 
in the consonants are made by making two, three, 
four, and five scores together, by driving them now on 
this side and then on that, or by continuing the score 
right round the corner so as to be equally on both 
sides. The consonants above or to the right of the 
line are — B (i stroke), L (2 strokes), F (3 strokes), 
S (4 strokes), N (5 strokes) ; those below or to the left 



INTRODUCTION, 



XXIX. 



are — H. D, T. C. A. ; while those across are — -M. G. 
NC. ST. ZR. and P. is represented by X. The vowels 
A, O, U, E, 1 are represented by one, two, three, four 
and five short strokes respectively. •^" For example, 
the name Ovanos would be written in Ogam thus : — 



■If 



II 



II 



This method of writing was distinctly simple, 
labour-saving, and adapted to instrument and mater- 
ial, as boys who have cut names in the barks of trees, 
and have found how difficult it is to carve a rounded 
vowel or consonant, and how easy it is to cut a 
line or make a notch in the wood, will understand. 
But as we might expect, the inscriptions are very 
short, and commemorate the names of obscure per- 
sonages and their relations. " Maqi " (mac), " son of," ; 

* The subjoined Table will give some idea of the Ogam charac- 
ters. A somewhat similar Table is given by Rev, T. Macbeth, 
LL.D., in his Story of Ireland and her Church. 




XXX. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

*' avi," forefather of, and " poi " (son of ?) being the 
words most generally employed. The name of Vorti- 
gern is inscribed on one of the pillars in this collec- 
tion, a name which was also borne by the unhappy 
British prince, who invited over the Jutes, Hengist 
and Horsa, to assist him to repel the Scots and Picts, 
and by a Welsh prince, whose name is associated 
with the vicinity of Nevin and the Rivals (Yr Eifl) 
in Carnarvonshire, where Vortigern's Valley and 
Vortigern's Grave are still pointed out, and whose 
connections with Merlin, the Welsh prophet— a Welsh 
copy of whose prophecies was found near this very 
place by Gerald of Wales — form the subject of many 
a thrilling Welsh story. Some of the Ogam inscrip- 
tions are to Christian clergy. We have one to a 
Bigoesgobi, or rural bishop, and another near Dingle, 
to the memory of S. Monachan at Temple Geal 

This form of writing has given rise to much dis- 
cussion, with regard both to its origin and its anti- 
quity. Professor Rhys thinks it was invented by 
some Celt in Wales to represent the letters of the 
Roman alphabet some centuries after Christ, and that 
it was then introduced into Ireland. Professor Bury 
well points out that the Ogam alphabet is simply the 
Latin, with the three last letters left out and two 
others added. And it is quite possible that this mode 
of writing was introduced previous to, and inde- 
pendently of Christianity, as the older stones are dis- 
tinctly pagan. The Irish alphabet itself, with the 



INTRO D UCTION. xxxi. 

exception of two letters, |\ (r) and f (s), is distinctly 
the Latin, and was most probably introduced into 
Ireland by Christian teachers. Tirechan tells us that one 
of S. Patrick's employments was writing out alpha- 
bets (ahgitoria) for his young men, whom he in- 
structed as well as he was able in the Latin tongue. 
It is, however, possible that ahgitoria may mean the 
A.BoC. of doctrine as Dr. Whitley Stokes suggested. 



Section 5. — Ancient Forts and Dwelling 

Places. 

The remains of ancient forts and dwelling places in 
Ireland are many and various. Some 28,000 forts are 
scattered over the country, belonging to different ages 
and called by various names. Some of these, like the 
Staigue fort and Dun Aengus, may have been built 
thousands of years B.C. while others may not have 
been earlier than 1000 A.D. Similar structures 
are found all over the Continent. The majority are 
simply great mounds, surrounded in some places by 
fosses or ditches, and ring walls of stone called cashels 
(Lat., castellum). Lis, Rath, Dun, Moher and Caher 
are the favourite names for these fortified homesteads. 
The duns seem to have been the residences of the 
princes, and the cahers — of which the best specimen the 
writer has seen is in Kilfenora Glebe, Co. Clare — were 



xxxii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

generally stone forts. A very small proportion of these 
forts were made by the Danes, as they are principally 
found where the Vikings never gained a footing, and 
are regarded with a superstitious veneration which the 
Celtic people could hardly be expected to entertain 
for the abodes of the fell Northmen, who in revenge 
for the crusade of Charlemagne against their own 
countrymen, destroyed the illuminated manuscripts, 
shrines, churches, and sanctuaries of Erin, and per- 
formed their own bloody rites on the altars of the 
churches, as Ota, wife of Turgesius, did at Clonmac- 
nois, 

One of the best preserved and most prettily-situated 
rath the writer has seen stands on an elevation in the 
demesne of Castle Bernard, Kinnitty. It is circular in 
form, thirty feet high, but was most probably higher in 
olden days, and is fifty-five yards in diameter. The 
vallum slopes down in the form of a perfect glacis. 
There are also traces of the ancient chevaux de frise 
which defended the summit. Some curiously carved 
stones were found here, among them the figure of a 
monk on horseback in the dress of the Chaucer period. 
The fort is within sight of other raths on the Cumber 
mountains, and in the vicinity of an early Celtic cross, 
in one of the panels of which is depicted, as it is be- 
lieved, the conversion of Aengus, King of Cashel, and 
father of S. Colman, who gave his name to Kilcoleman, 
near Birr. Beneath it lie the ruined wall 
with a solitary single- light window of the ancient 



INTRODUCTION. xxxiii. 

abbey of S. Finan and about twenty stone steps of 
the Abbey tower. It commands an extensive view 
of the hills and valleys around, which are attractively 
grouped and planted. 

Perhaps the most interesting of all these ancient 
remains are the rath chambers or souterrains which 
are called uath (ooa). Of these artificial caves there is 
a specimen in Lisnahoon (the fort with the cave) in 
Roscommon. They were evidently used for storage 
and concealment. A number of these caves have 
been found in the County of Londonderry. A very 
good specimen is to be seen at Lisrenny, Co. Louth, 
the residence of Capt. W. De S. Filgate, M.F.H., a 
friend of the writer. In Kerry, the Isles of Arran and 
Innismurray, off the coast of Donegal, there is found 
a peculiar kind of dome-shaped building built of rough 
stone without mortar, with a low, lintel-covered 
entrance, and with c. roof formed by the gradual ap- 
proach of the horizontal layers of stone, until they are 
capped by one central flag, like the sepulchral cham- 
ber of New Grange. Similar dome-shaped cells are 
found in Syria. These are called Clochans, or beehive 
huts, and were the sort of dwellings that stood within 
the ring walls of the stone forts in the West, where the 
people had little or no timber for fortifications. To 
these primitive structures the ancient oratories of 
Christian clergy, such as that of St. Finan Cam and 
Gallerus, on the coast of Kerry, assigned by Dr. Petrie 
to an earlier date than the time of St. Patrick, and 



xxxiv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

the monastic cells on the Skelligs bear a resemblance, 
being built without knowledge of the arch and of stones 
dovetailed without mortar. But while the beehive 
house of St. Finan Cam in Lough Lee is of the rudest 
description, the difference in form and finish be- 
tween the round stone house, or clochan, in the north 
island of Arran, and the conical-shaped neat little 
house of Gallerus might mark a gap of at least a 
thousand years. 

The two great forts in the West which every tourist 
should visit are the Dun Aengus on the largest of the 
Arran isles and Staigue-an-or in Kerry. Dun Aengus, 
situated on a bold headland in Arranmore is one of 
the finest of these primitive structures. It consists of 
a triple line of fortifications, of which the two inner 
lines of horseshoe pattern are well preserved. Its 
abattis of jagged stone is still a formidable defence. 
From the Dun, which is supposed to be the residence 
of an ancient Firbolg chief, there is a magnificent view 
of Galway Bay. The Arran islands, which contain a 
number of interesting Christian ruins, are reached in 
small steamers from Galway. The Staigue-an-or stands 
on the mainland of Kerry. A conveyance from the 
hotel in Waterville brings the tourist there in a few 
hours. It is, indeed, a unique and remarkable struc- 
ture. Four miles from Lake Coppal, surrounded by 
an amphitheatre of bleak hills, it stands on a low 
eminence from which a good view can be had of the 
Kenmare river and of the bold peninsula, which Owen 



INTRODUCTION. xxxv. 

More, the warlike King of Munster, who is also known 
as Mogh Nuadhat, named after his Spanish wife 
Beara. But the principal object of interest is the fort, 
of which a model is shown in the Museum. Sur- 
rounded by a broad fosse it stands, a circular stone 
fort of Cyclopean size, constructed without tool or 
mortar, but not without skill or art. The average 
height is 1 8 feet, and breadth 13 feet, and it encloses a 
space of some 90 feet in diameter. There are cells 
built in the wall, the face of which has a curious back- 
ward slope, or batter, on both sides. It would seem 
to have been built to serve as a place of refuge for 
the people and their cattle, what time the Firbolgs 
began to feel the pressure of the Celts by land and 
sea. 

The three forts we shall next visit were the habi- 
tations of Celtic princes of a later age. Grianan of 
Aileach, the palace or sunny residence of the O'Lough- 
lins, still called Greenan-Ely, stands on a high hill 
some four miles from Derry and was evidently a place 
of considerable strength. It is surrounded by three 
concentric ramparts which were strengthened by a 
" sonnach " of stakes and a stone wall or cashel, and 
commands a glorious view of Loughs Foyle and 
Swilly. Of Rathcrochan in Roscommon, the head, 
quarters of the O' Conors, nothing remains but massive 
mounds and raths, to indicate the place where the war- 
like Queen Maev resided in state, and where S. Patrick 
met the beautiful daughters of Laogaire ; while a red 



xxxvi. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

stone marks the spot where Dathi, his predecessor, 
is said to be buried. Of Kincora, the famous Dun of 
the O'Brians at Killaloe, which the Annals of Lough 
Ce tell us was burned in 1 107, when " seventy tons 
of drink called mead and of old ale " were destroyed^ a 
description will be given in another place. Many 
similar duns were used by Irish chieftains even in the 
days of Queen Elizabeth. Fynes Morison in his 
History of Ireland, thus describes one of these habita- 
tions — "The fort of Innislouglan is seated in the midst 
of a peat bog, and is no way accessible but through 
thick woods very hardly passable. It has about it two 
deep ditches, both compassed with strong palisades, 
a very high and thick rampart of earth and timber, 
and well flanked with bulwarks." 

The Anglo-Saxon thanes in England had similarly 
fortified and constructed residences of earth and 
timber before the arrival of the Normans, who taught 
the Saxons how to build stone castles. The Irish 
were not slow to learn the same lesson. In 1161, 
more than 10 years before Hugh De Lacy built his 
noble castles of Kilkea, Trim, and Leighlin Bridge, 
King Roderic O'Connor erected at Tuam a strong 
stone castle which was called '' The Wonderful Castle," 
and which was, perhaps, the first stone castle built by 
an Irish prince. It had a central keep and courtyard, 
was fortified by strong towers connected by lofty 
curtain walls, and was protected by a deep moat. 
Behind these walls and entrenchments the Irish 



INTRODUCTION. xxxvii. 

chieftains dispensed lavish hospitality and lived in 
rude magnificence until their neighbours burnt down 
their residences or the English cannon balls began to 
whistle about their ears a tune very different from that 
of the birds in the fairy glades. The actual houses in 
which they resided have perished long since. And 
this is not surprising when we consider the frail 
materials of earth, timber, and wattles of which they 
were constructed. The Irish were famous for their 
wattle work, which was generally used for roofing, for 
bridges, and for the carrying of turf. The palace that 
was built outside the walls of Dublin, near where St. 
Andrew's Church now stands, for the entertainment 
of Henry II., on his visit to Ireland, was made of 
earth and wattles. The hurdle-roofing is to be traced 
in the sacristy in Clonfert Cathedral. The bridge 
that spanned the Shannon at Athlone, before the 
Elizabethan structure on which De Ginkle met the 
forces of St. Ruth was constructed, was of wicker, 
and Dublin was called Ath-cliath, or the ford of the 
hurdles. Indeed many of the mediaeval castles in 
England were made of the same material. 

The Celtic chiefs also lived on artificial islands or 
crannogs in the midst of bogs and lakes which are 
compared with the pile dwellings on the Swiss lakes. 
The writer has visited the crannogs at Lough rea and 
in Lough Derg. On the former the bones of an 
extinct elk were found, and the latter, which are 
generally called " the Corageens," look like natural 



xxxviii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

islands with their plantations of fir, and are attractively 
situated in a beautiful lake. These may have been 
the islands mentioned as having been repaired by 
King Brian in 1002. For it is not unlikely that they 
were ravaged and burnt to the water's edge by the 
same Danes who plundered and destroyed the Seven 
Churches and Celtic settlement on Inniscaltra or 
Holy Isle, some four miles lower down the Shannon. 
The mode in which these islands in Lough Derg was 
constructed is very simple. The foundation of stones 
was first made on a shallow portion of the lake, and 
on these loose material branches and earth were 
heaped, stakes having been previously driven deep 
down into the ground and cross beams lashed or 
mortised to them to form a platform, on which the 
family built their wooden dwellings and worked 
securely at their various employments, until the Danes 
or their own countrymen disturbed their rest and cut 
short their careers. Of these crannogs, which number 
some 200, and which were in use down to the days of 
Queen Elizabeth, there are many varieties. Walled 
islands and island forts are mentioned in the Annals, 
and are found in Galway and Donegal. It would 
seem that lawless bands occasionally occupied a 
fortified crannog, where they stored their plunder, and 
from which they made their raids upon their more 
peaceful neighbours. S. Fechan of Fore had occasion 
to curse a dun in Lough Leane, and S. Ciaran, of 
Clonmacnois, had to clear an island " inhabited bv 



INTRODUCTION. xxxix. 

Gentiles and rabble." And this was probably done 
by burning them out. Indeed, the danger the inhabi- 
tants of the crannog had to fear from friend and foe 
was fire. It is not many years ago since one of the 
crannogs in Lough Derg was burnt to the water's 
edge through the carelessness of some holiday-makers. 



Section 6. — Ecclesiastical Archtecture, 

The early ecclesiastical buildings of the Celts were 
very homely structures. They possess n;iuch interest 
for the antiquarian, but little beauty or grace, being 
small and oblong, without apse or chancel. A great 
number of them seem to have been built of earth and 
wattles, as the name duirtheach, "house of oak," 
suggests; and could be moved about like the 
oratory of St. Moling, in Carlow. Bede tells us that 
when Finan, who was an Irishman, was made bishop of 
Lindisfarne, "he built a church suitable for his See, 
but did not construct it of stone, but of sawn oak, and 
covered it with reeds, after the manner of the Scots." 
But many of these primitive churches were built and 
roofed of stone, and were called daimhliags, or stone 
houses. Very interesting specimens of these are the 
churches of S. MacDara, in Gal way Bay (15 feet by 
1 1 feet) ; Tempull Ceannanach, off the shores of Conne- 
mara; the chapel of S. Molaise, the friend of 



xl. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. \ 

Columbkllle, in Innismurray (12 feet by 8 feet) ; and the 

small church on Ireland's Eye, formerly called Inis Mac 

Nessan, where S. Nessan and his sons worshipped in days 

of old, and probably heard the Scriptures expounded 

from a famous copy of the Gospels, called the Garland 

of Howth. It is believed that S. Patrick introduced this 

style of building into Ireland. The general length of i 

the larger stone churches seems to have been 60 feet ; 

but the Cathedral of Armagh in the 9th century was | 

140 feet long. In another chapter of this book, the writer 

will describe two of the most interesting and artistic 

of these stone-roofed oratories and churches, those of 

S. Molua and S. Flannan, at Killaloe. 

The " dear departed " Ecclesiastical Commissioners 
evidently intended to revive this type of church 
architecture, for they repudiated chancels and towers, 
and erected small, low, rectangular buildings of the 
style that is generally described as " squat." In the 
ruins of a church at Dean's Grange, Blackrock, one 
can see that the original church was rectangular and 
of rubblestone ; but the improving hand of the Norman 
came, broke through the eastern wall, and added a 
chancel of cut stone. Neither was the primitive Celtic 
monastery at all like the magnificent stone structures 
of mediaeval times. It was simply a collection of 
small circular huts of wood or wattle, with three or 
four of larger dimensions to serve as a church, kitchen, 
and residence of the abbot, who had to keep an eye 
on everything, surrounded by a circular rampart and 



INTRODUCTION. xli. 

palisade, and sometimes with a cashel. Colgan's 
Vita Tripartita, p. 226, gives an interesting record of 
the dimensions of one of these settlements, which 
may, as Professor Bury suggests, represent the typical 
scheme of the monastic establishments of Patrick and 
his companions. The measurements are — " 27 feet 
(diameter ?) in the Great House, 17 feet in the kitchen, 
7 feet in the aregal (oratory) ; and it was thus that he 
used always to found the congbala (monasteries)." 

The variety of names for church and oratory in 
Irish, e.g., cill, eaglais, tempull, domnach, aireagal, 
and urnaide expresses not only the eloquence of the 
language but doubtless also a difference in the 
architecture and purpose of the building. Those 
who are sufficiently familiar with the names Kildare, 
Kilcullen, Killeen, Shankhill (old church), and 
Templemore, may not at first recognise the Latin 
ecclesia in the Irish, Eglish, or Aglish, the Latin 
Dordinica in Donagh-V dXnck, the Latin oraculum in 
Errigal, and the Latin oratorium in Urney. The 
Cymric word lann, so frequent in Welsh names of 
sacred places, is also used for Church as in Lynally 
(for Lann-Elo), Glenavy (lann-abhaich, the dwarfs 
church) ; and Baslick (Lat. Basilica) is also found. 
The churches that were founded on Sunday (Dies 
Dominica) were called Donagh (Domhnach), the more 
pretentious edifices were doubtless called Eglish and 
Baslic ; while those that may have occupied the site 
of some pagan shrine were called temple (Lat. templum, 



xlii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Irish teampull). Tempi etuohy, or the temple of the 
tuath or tribe, seems to point to some such connection. 

We have seen that in many cases, especially in the 
west, the cells of the monks — for the Celtic Church was 
originally monastic — were of stone. But it would 
seem that even when this was not the case that the 
Abbot's residence was a stone square building, higher 
than the rest, so that he might supervise more con- 
veniently the life and doings of the whole establish- 
ment. A good specimen of the Abbot's residence is 
to be seen in S. Columba's House, Kells, which, like 
that of S. Kevin's, at Glendalough ; S. Molaise's, on 
Devenish Island ; and S. Declan's, at Ardmore^ 
combines an oratory and a dwelling-house. It is 
altogether of stone, like that of S. Ere, at Slane, and 
consists, like S. Kevin's House, of two stories, the 
lower being 19 feet long, 15 feet broad, and 25 feet 
high, with walls 3 feet 10 inches thick. This served 
as an oratory, the entrance being like that of the Round 
Towers in the west wall, some 8 feet from the ground. 
It was roofed with stone, and upon it another building 
raised also of stone and divided into three small 
garrets, which are not higher than 6 feet in any place, 
and in one of these a stone slab is shown as the 
penitential couch of the Saint. The remarkable 
feature about S. Erc's hermitage is the cave hewn out 
beneath the rudely built anchorite's cell. Such 
hermitages were scattered all over Ireland in the days 
when the anchorite's life became the fashion through 



INTRODUCTION, xliii, 

the influence of a remarkable person in Synia S= Simeon 
Stylites,as we may learn from the number of Irish names 
of places beginning with Desert or Disert, and Anchor 
or Ankers ; and were sometimes attached to large 
monasteries, as at lona and Lindisfarne. For example 
when we read in Bede's History that Cuthbert died 
'' in the desert," we understand that he did not die in 
a wilderness like the Sahara, but in the anchorite's 
cell attached to the monastery. Of the abodes of the 
Anchorites, who belonged to the third order of the 
Irish Saints, '' the holies,"* the most interesting per- 
haps is S. Doulough's, The writer visited it ten years 
ago, in company with Canon Robert Walsh, author 
of Fingall and its Churches^ and others, and has a vivid 
recollection of the small stone bunk of 5 feet long, 2 
feet wide, and 2 J feet high, into which the Saint crept 
at night through a small hole in the floor to enjoy as 
uncomfortable a rest as he could inflict upon himself. 
The crypt beneath is divided into two small apart- 
ments, in one of which stands the altar tomb of the 
Saint, and, doubtless, of his successors also ; for it 
was the custom, as Marianus Scotus, the celebrated 
Irish scribe, of Ratiesbon, .tells us, for the en- 
closed anchorites to say their prayers and read the 
services standing on the grave of their predecessors. 

* IJssher Works VI., page 478, gives the three orders. The first 
order were most holy. "They did not reject the services and 
society of women because they did not fear the blast of tempta- 
tion, being founded on a rock." The second were " more holy." 
These rej ected the • help of women and kept them away from 
their monasteries. 



xliv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

Between this abode and the octagonal Baptistery erected 
over the well, a remarkable and beautiful building, 
there used to be an underground connection, through 
which the Saint crept when he was required to 
baptize a convert or a babe. 

As the years rolled on, the Celtic establishments 
were built in a more durable manner of stone, and were 
generally protected by a lofty Round Tower. But the 
general principle of the coenobitic system which was 
borrowed from the East, where each monk had his 
own private cell, prevailed. In fact, it was this 
principle that gave the name of monastery, which 
means the residence of the solitary ones (monastes) to 
these institutions. In the later Celtic institutions we 
generally find seven small churches* and high pictorial 
crosses. For instance, Glendalough (the Glen of the 
lakes), in County Wicklow, once rejoiced in the name 
*' The Seven Churches," one of which, called S. 
Kevin's Kitchen, is 22 feet long and 15 feet wide, with 
a high-pitched roof and a circular turret at the west 
end ; and Clonmacnois (the meadow of the son of 
Nos), near Athlone, founded by Kiaran Macan-tsoir, or 
Kiaran, son of the carpenter, one of the most celebrated 
of the Irish Saints, was also called " Seven Churches " 
from the number of its ecclesiastical remains. Those 

* The number seven corresponded, doubtless, with the same 
number of Bishops. In those days, before the diocesan episco- 
pate was introduced, we often find groups of Bishops living 
together. In the Litany of (Engus the Culdee, mention is made 
of 138 groups of seven Bishops. 



INT ROD UCTION. xlv. 

who have imagination may picture to themselves the 
gala day when S, Columba, after inspecting his own 
monastery at Durrow (Dairmag, the field of oaks)> 
visited S. Kiaran's foundation, and was received with 
hymns and homage, being carried on a litter with a 
canopy of branches over his head, by the Abbot and 
the brothers into their then homely enclosure. A 
century passed and the brothers of these rival 
monasteries were engaged in a bitter strife, which ended 
in the victory of Clonmacnois. In fact, the monks and 
students of these ancient colleges, for they resembled 
colleges more nearly than convents, as their work was 
teaching and writing, as dearly loved a battle as the 
college students of our day love a foot-ball match. S. 
Columba himself had to leave Ireland on the advice of 
his soul-friend S. Molaise, because of a fight he and 
his men had with S. Finnian, of Moville, and his 
at Cooldrevny (561). Temple Kiaran, 12 feet by 9 
feet, was evidently the oratory of the Saint. The 
Cathedral is assigned to the loth century. In Innis- 
murray there are still three or four diminutive churches 
standing amid the seven stone bee-hive cells that 
remain of the foundation of S. Molaise. In Innis- 
caithra, or holy isle, there are the remains of seven 
small churches ; and in Inniscleraun, or Quaker 
Island, famous in the story of Queen Maev, in Lough 
Ree, there are four churches within the cashel, one of 
which, Diarmit's Chapel, is 8J feet long by 6J feet 
broad, and the doorway is 4 feet 9 inches by i foot 



xlvi.. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

8 inches, while there is a lady chapel and a female 
burial place outside the cashel, and a sixth church on 
the hill. Only one of these has a chancel. 

But any person who desires to see Celtic ecclesiastical 
art, as distinguished from that introduced in later 
centuries by the Norman barons and the Cistercian 
and Franciscan monks, of whose cathedral churches 
at Mellifont and Ardfert there are still many exquisite 
remains, should inspect the West Doorway of Clon- 
fert Cathedral, which is a beautiful specimen of the 
Fliberno-Romanesque architecture, and dates from 
11661 the Hiberno-Romanesque Chancel arch in 
Cormac's chapel on the famous Rock of Cashel, 
which was used at the famous Synod of 1172; and 
the Celtic crosses at Monasterboice, Kells, and Clon- 
macnois. The historical taste of the teachers of 
Clonmacnois is shown by the very ancient manuscripts 
that were written there ; the Annals compiled by 
Abbot Tigernach, who died in 1088 ; the Chronicon 
Scotofww, a continuation of the same down to 11 50; 
and the Leabhar-na-Huidhre, a vellum MS. transcribed- 
from an old record in the nth century by Maolmaire 
of Clonmacnois. 

As the early churches were without towers, the 
people were summoned to prayers by hand bells, of 
which there are a sufficient variety in the Museum. 
Of these the most venerated is the Bell of the Will 
of Patrick (Clog-an-Eadachta-Phatraic), presented by 
S. Columba to the Church of Armagh, and said to 



INTRO D UCTION, xl vii. 

have been taken by him from the tomb of the Saint. 
It is roughly made of two iron plates and stands but 
6 inches high. But the value the Celtic Church set 
upon this bell may be judged from the beauty of the 
richly ornamented brass shrine which was made to 
hold it when Donald was Bishop of Armagh (1092- 
1106). Both these sacred relics had been carefully 
preserved in the custody of the Mulhollands, the 
hereditary " coarbs " or curators, for many centuries, 
and they were finally purchased by Dr. Todd, and 
presented by his executors to the Royal Irish 
Academy, The possession of this bell carried 
certain advantages with it. As shrines were general!)/ 
deposited in churches, which were afterwards known 
by the name of Skreen or Skrine, it is not unlikely 
that it was the carrying away of this bell from a church 
that is meant by the " Annals of Ulster," which 
describe a warlike expedition and the seizure of 1,200 
cows and a multitude of captives, " in revenge for 
the violation of the Bell of the Will." All the bells 
are not as rudely made and rivetted as this square 
black bell of our patron Saint. Some of the cast 
bronze bells display excellent workmanship and 
design. The Bell of the Will of S. Patrick does not 
seem, however, to have been always used for a sacred 
purpose. Like the shrine of S. Columba, which is 
called the " Cathach " or Battler, from being carried 
by the O'Donnells into battle, this bell became a 
mighty power in the fray, as the poet tells us : 



xlviil CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

". Two hundred Kings, without doubt 
With their famous troops, 
The bell of the mild cleric shall kill, 
O King of Glory, with it is my love." 

The hand bells, for all their beauty of workmanship 
and sacred associations, proved insufficient as the 
Christian communities grew in size to summon them 
to prayer. Larger bells were required, and towers 
had to be erected for them. As the bells were square 
at first, and afterwards round, the church towers were 
round at first and afterwards square. In Inniscleraun 
there is a church the tower of which shows the stage 
of transition from the round to the square. In one 
of the churches of Glendalough there is a small 
circular belltower with conical roof in the exact form 
of one of the Round Towers. And in the parish of 
Seirkeiran, where S. Kiaran of Saigir, a possible pre- 
decessor of S. Patrick, lived, there is a good specimen 
of a round church tower, which must not, however, 
be confused with the celebrated Round Towers, 
to which we shall return. This, indeed, may 
have been built some centuries after Kiaran's time, 
and by the side of it an early church may 
have stood.* In connection with Seirkeiran, 
it is an interesting fact that it once possessed 
a bell called " Bearnan Kiarnan," or the gapped bell 
of Kiaran, which S. Patrick is said to have conferred 

* The writer does not mean to say that church towers were 
used in early times. Indeed it is well known that the earliest 
Celtic churches were without them. Gregory of Turin is the 
first to mention a church with tower and pharos. 



INTRODUCTION, xlix. 

on Kiaran, and that this bell was first rung on the 
hill now called Bell Hill. It was the midnight bell 
that summoned S. Columba on that last night in his 
life to prayers and rest, and as the dawn was break- 
ing the Saint passed away with a face, as his chronicler, 
Adamnan, relates, " like that of a man who had seen 
a vision of heaven." 



Section 7,— The Celtic Schools and their 

Art. 

If we were to ask where the highest types of Celtic 
Life and Art were found, the answer from all sides 
would be, in the Ancient Celtic schools. The dis- 
tinctly liberal system of education by which Greek, 
Latin, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, geography, and 
astronomy, as we learn from the Celtic works on these 
subjects that remain, were taught, attracted scholars 
of the highest rank from every quarter of Europe, and 
excited the jealousy of the celebrated Aldhelm of 
Malmesbury. Among the most famous of these 
colleges was the monastic school of Clonard, where 
3,000 students were ruled by S. Finnian, who trained 
S. Columba, the founder of the celebrated College of 
lona and S. Comgall, the first principal of the 
Divinity School of Bangor, in county Down. 
Numbers of the English nobility, as the Venerable 
Bede informs us, came over to Ireland ^' either for 



1. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

the purpose of studying the Word of God or to follow a 
stricter life." It is said that Dagobert II. of France 
was educated in the old Abbey school on the hill of 
Slane, and among other Irish scholars were Oswald 
and Alfrid, Kings of Northumbria ; Gildas, the British 
historian ; Agilbert, Bishop of Paris ; S. Willibrod, 
Archbishop of Utrecht ; S. Paternus of Brittany, and 
others of equally great fame. The attainments of 
Irish scholarship in that age are shown by the re- 
markable facts that the only member of the Court of 
Charles the Bald of France who could translate a 
Greek book was an Irishman, John Scotus Erigena ; 
that the favourite recreation of S. Columbanus was 
the composition of Latin verses ; that an Irishman, 
Virgil, Bishop of Salzburg, in the 8th century v/as 
called " the Geometer " because of his mathematical 
genius, which led him to prove the sphericity of the 
globe ; that Alcuin, the Englishman who was commis- 
sioned about 800 A.D. by Charlemagne to prepare an 
amended edition of the Scriptures, had received part of 
his education in the Irish school of Clonmacnois, and 
that he sent a letter to Colchu, " the Chief Scribe 
and Master of the Scots/' (Irish) in which he addresses 
him as his " blessed master and pious father," 
and a donation of 200 silver sicli from Charlemagne 
for certain Irish monasteries ; and that Charlemagne 
in his great work of reviving learning found his best 
allies in two Irish scholars, Clem.ens and Albinus, 
whom he made wardens of two of his colleges. 



INTRODUCTION. ii. 

The Irish schools treated their pupils with the 
greatest consideration, charging nothing, as Bede 
informs us, for board and lodging, books and instruc- 
tion. But it was neither the secular studies nor the 
hospitality of the Celtic schools, but the study and 
illumination of the Scriptures, that have made them 
immortal. As scribes of the Scriptures the Irish 
clergy have been renowned from the days of S. 
Patrick, who was called *' the Man of the Bible," 
from his habit of presenting each of the churches he 
founded with " the Books of the Law and the Books 
of the Gospel," and S. Columba, who is said to have 
made 300 copies of the Scriptures with his own hand. 
Oi these books, containing illuminated transcriptions 
of the Scriptures the great majority shared the fate of the 
celebrated Saxon libraries of Peterborough and Croy- 
land, being burnt by the Danes. But there are many 
Irish manuscripts to be seen in the great libraries on the 
Continent, especially those of St. GaU (founded by 
S. Columbanus, an Irishman), Bobbio, and Wurzburg. 
In the last-named library there is a complete commen- 
tary on the Epistles of S. Paul, written in the Irish 
language of the ninth century, which is distinctly 
valuable ; and in the French National Library there 
was found a quaint Irish work, called De Mensura 
OrbiSj or *' The Survey of the World," written by 
Dicuil, an Irish monk of the ninth century, which 
gives an interesting account of Iceland, which was 
evangelised by Irish Christians long before the Danes 



lii. CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

landed there in 874. We have also in the " Book of 
Armagh " a complete copy of the New Testament ; 
in the " Book of Kells," a copy of the Gospels ; in 
the " Book of Durrow/' a manuscript of the Gospels, 
most probably copied from that used by S. Columba 
himself; in the "Book of Moling or Mulling," a 
rather imperfect copy of the Gospels, and in the 
*'Stowe St. John" portions of that Gospel. 

But we are not concerned here with the text of 
these Gospels, which, though based on the Vulgate of 
S. Jerome, shows thoughtful and independent editing, 
but with the wonderful skill in the arts of caligraphy 
and illumination which they display. The Book of 
Kells, which belongs to the 8th century, is said to be 
the most beautiful book in the world. Giraldus 
Cambrensis described it as the work rather " of angelic 
than of human skill." It is the most perfect specimen 
extant of Irish penmanship. It contains 354 pages, 
1 1 inches by 10, is written in uncials, or capitals, and 
is remarkable for the superb art and intricacy of its 
designs, and the harmonious, brilliant, and varied 
effects produced by four simple dyes — black, red, 
purple, and yellow. The ornamental designs princi- 
pally consist of interlaced bands, and weird, snake- 
like and bird-like forms. The uncouth drawing of the 
figures is obscured by the excellence of the scrivener's 
art and his illuminative skill. 

Whence came this art, and whereuiito may we liken 
it ? are questions that rise to our iips as we pore 



INTRODUCTION. iiii. 

over the pictured pages of this wonderful book in the 
Library of Trinity College. The art certainly came 
from Byzantium, the seat of ecclesiastical art and 
architecture, where it reached a high degree of perfec- 
tion, but the Celtic artists developed it in their own 
way. Now there is an illuminated manuscript in the 
British Museum, which is described by an English 
expert as "the most perfect existing specimen of the 
English handwriting." It is the copy of the Gospels, 
known as the '* Durham Book," that was made in 
Lindisfarne, now called Holy Isle, off the coast of 
Northumberland, where S. Aidan, an Irishman from 
S. Columba's College at lona, founded a church and a 
school, which was for many years a centre of learning 
and light in the North of England. One of the 
successors of this S. Aidan, who is described by 
Bede, the historian, as a real saint in charity, tender- 
ness, diligence, and devotion, was S. Cuthbert, who, 
besides being an Irishman, was a devoted student and 
scholar. It was under the directions, and, doubtless, 
with the assistance, of S. Cuthbert that Eadfrith, his 
successor, completed this copy, which was covered, 
ornamented and translated into Saxon by the 
three bishops who succeeded Eadfrith. Its interlaced 
designs and illuminated work resemble the Irish 
manuscripts so closely that they seem to have been 
taken from the same model. There is a very remark- 
able church still standing in Monkwearmouth (Sunder- 
land), built by a Saxon, Benedict Biscop in 674, and 



liv. CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

containing" a corner of a sculptured slab built into the 
vestry wall, which shows the same kind of interlaced 
patterns that are found in the Lindisfarne manuscript. 
The Right Rev. G. F. Browne, Bishop of Bristol, the 
Church Historian, in his Notes on Monkwearmouth 
Church, calls the class of work " Irish Ornamentation," 
and regards the tracery on the slab and the designs in 
the manuscript as the work of the same hand. It is 
interesting to find that the work, which is described 
by an expert as " the most perfect existing specimen 
of the English handwriting " is regarded by another 
authority as *^ Irish ornamentation." At Tellinge, a 
small Danish hamlet in Jutland, where the Danish 
Vikings held their wassail in their ancient palace 
after those expeditions, which cost Ireland and England 
so many precious manuscripts and shrines, there were 
two remarkable Runic monuments raised by Harald 
IL, who became a Christian, to his parents, Gjormand 
Thyra ; and these also, in their strange figures and in- 
terwoven bands, resemble the Irish ornamental and 
interlaced work on vellum and stone. It is quite 
possible that they were engraved by an Irish scribe, 
who was either the friend or the prisoner of King 
Harald (A.D. 935). 

The Irish scribe, who could produce such work, was 
a person of consequence in the establishment. The 
title of scribe was often given to an abbot or bishop to 
enhance his position. Alcuin addresses Colchu as 
'• the Chief Scribe." In an illuminated MS. of Giraldus 



INTRODUCTION. iv. 

Cambrensis there is a quaint picture of the scribe en- 
gaged at his work with style and quill, dressed in 
greenish-brown jacket and light-coloured trousers. 
The post was honourable but onerous. There are 
many notes on the margins of the manuscripts, made 
by the scribes, in which they sometimes relieved their 
feelings. In one of these, a monk at Wurzburg tells 
us that though only his three fingers have been writ- 
ing, his whole body has been occupied in the work, 
'* quia trihus digitis scrihihir et totus memhrus laboret." 

The Irish schools were also celebrated for the high 
class of metal work they turned out. Within the walls 
of the " civitas," or " family," the skilled artist in 
gold and silver and bronze was highly esteemed. In- 
deed, he might aspire, like Conlath of Kildare, to a 
bishopric. The principal employment of these artists 
was the making of ornamental shrines for the Books 
that have been mentioned and others, for bells, croziers, 
and crosses. The Cross of Cong, the Chalice of 
Ardagh, the Domnach Airgid, or " Silver Shrine " of 
S. Patrick's Gospels, and the crozier of Clonmacnois 
which are chiefly of bronze inlaid with silver, orna- 
mented with gold filigree, and set with crystals and 
native pearls, are fair specimens of the metal and filigree 
v/ork of the ancient Irish schools of art. The illumi- 
nated manuscripts, the sculptured stone crosses 
(which will be described in the account of Slane), the 
delicately wrought and inlaid book shrines or " curn- 
dachs," the embossed "bachalls" or croziers, the 



ivi, CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

ornate polaires or satchels, in which the manuscripts 
were preserved (of which there is a good specimen in 
Trinity College) and which were saved from the unspar- 
ing hands of the Danes by being carried beyond the 
seas, deposited in the Round Towers, or buried in the 
ground, give us a general idea of what the Celtic 
schools could achieve in metal work, sculpture, and 
the illuminative art before the Danes or Normans in- 
vaded the island. 



TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CELTIC RACE. 

The first historical inhabitants of Erin with whom 
we come in contact are the Gaels. The Tuatha De 
Danaan move in the dim distance, great shadowy figures, 
wrapt in myth and wonderlore. From them sprang 
that mighty man Finn McCool, whose mother was 
" Muirne the smooth neck, daughter of Tadg, son of 
Nuada, of the Tuatha De Danaan," and whose quoits 
and race course are pointed out on the Kerry Coast 
by the mouth of the Casan river. They were suc- 
ceeded by the Iberian race or Firbolgs, who were 
driven westward by the Celts, and whose long and 
narrow skulls, found in the western caves, bear a 
strong resemblance to the remains in the gravel pits 
of the Basque provinces. The massive stone forts in 
the County Kerry, of which the Staigue-an-Or, near 
Lake Coppal, is chief, and the Arran Isles are doubt- 
less their handiwork. And there where that people 
made their last stand we find to-day a distinct 
nationality, men of small stature and long narrow 
heads. These Firbolgs — a dark, wiry little folk — 



2 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

may be the original of "the little people" (the lepre 
chauns or fairies) who have so real an existence in 
the imagination of the Celt. They were reduced to 
servitude by the Celts, and called Aitheach-Tuatha, 
corrupted into Attacotti. The Milesians and Celts 
are most probably the same. For Mil or Milid 
means warrior, and so do Goidel, Goth, and Celt. 
But the Picts (Cruithne), whose headquarters was 
Emania, were evidently a different race. 

One of the Iberian forts (Murbech) in Arranmore 
was named from Mil : — 

" Adar made his residence in the South 
They stationed Mil at Murbech." 

There is some foundation, moreover, for the existence 
of Eber, Erimon and Ith Q). Few Irishmen, how- 
ever, can trace their pedigree back to the flood ; 
although some of the Western families claim to be 
descended from Cormac Cas, after whom they were 
called Dalcassians. With the Celts the history of 
Erin begins. They were an Aryan race that passed 
into Europe from the highlands of India, pressing 
hard upon the Greek and Roman Empires, but were 
finally crushed by Caesar and the Germans in 
Europe, and in England were eventually driven 
by Saxon and Dane into Cornwall Wales, Cumbria, 
and Caledonia. It is believed that the Galatians, 
to whom S. Paul wrote the Epistle, in which he 
said, '' O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you ? " 

{^) See Studies in Early Irish History, by Prof. Rhys. 



THE CELTIC RACE. 3 

were of the same race as the Celts of Ireland 
and Britain. This people were remarkable for their 
childlike piety, bravery, and devotion to family and 
clan. In this spirit of clanship and adherence to 
tradition, we have, as Todd points out, the keynote 
of Irish history. Of a highly organized and sensi- 
tive disposition, the Celt lacked the staying power 
and steady purpose of the Saxon, his less versatile 
but more strenuous opponent. And in muscular 
development and athletic power the Gaels or Celts take 
a place second to none. When they were subdued by the 
Saxons they became, as Mommsen says, '' merged as 
a leaven of future development in a politically superior 
nationality." In appearance they were tall, fair-haired 
and grey-eyed, and their weapons were of iron and 
bronze. The name Celt, which is identified with 
Gall by Todd, is said to come from an old word 
which means to cast, because these people used to 
hurl their weapons from a distance. The word war also 
comes from a root (werf) meaning to throw. Hence the 
words Gall and Celt came to mean warrior. These Celts 
are found to day, in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales ; in 
the highlands of the first two countries and through- 
out the last, using their native tongue as well as the 
English. In the early days of English history the Celts 
were called Scoto-Milesians and Scots. St. Prosper of 
Aquitaine mentions the fact that Palladius preached to 
the Scots of both countries ; Bede calls Hibernia " the 
island of the Scots " and " the fatherland of the Scots," 
and Eginhard, the secretary of Charlemagne, calls it 



4 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

"the island of the Scots." From the fifth to the 
tenth century Ireland was, it would seem, known as 
Scotia. And it was not until the eleventh century 
that Erin ceased to be called Scotia, and Alba came to 
be known by that name. '' All the inhabitants of 
Hibernia," wrote Buchanan, the tutor of James VI. of 
Scotland, "were originally called Scoti, as Orosius 
points out, and our own annals tell us that there was 
more than one migration of the Scoti from Hibernia 
into Albania." The grand result of this movement of 
the northern clans of Hibernia, which spread over 
some centuries, was the establishment of a Scotic 
principality in Argyle, which eventually dominated 
the whole of the northern portion of the island, and 
gave to Scotland its Christian religion, its laws and 
monarchy. Though, perhaps, less numerous than the 
Picts, the Lothians, and the Britons who occupied the 
island, the Scots were the most vigorous and enter- 
prising. From them went forth Columba, St, Colum- 
kille, the apostle of the Picts, and in the ninth century, 
Kenneth, their chief, became King of Caledonia. And 
from this McAlpin line were descended the Bruces, the 
Stuarts, and the present royal family of Great Britain. 
They moved their seat of rule from Inverlochy to 
Scone and thence to Edinburgh, carrying with them 
the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, the original of which, 
according to Dr. Petrie, was left unnoticed on the 
grassy mounds of Tara. To-day the descendants of 
the Gael are found in the highland clans, the bon- 
neted and plaided Scotsmen, who belong originally to 



THE CELTIC RACE. 5 

the same race and the same land as the Celtic 
inhabitants of Erin. 

A protest against this view of the case has been 
recently made by Mr. E. W, Nicholson in his Keltic 
Studies. He indignantly repudiates the idea that the 
Picts were ever defeated by the Scots. It may be a shock 
to Irish nerves to hear Mr. Nicholson exclaim : " To 
suppose that the great free people from which he is 
descended were ever conquered by a body of Irish 
colonists, and that the language he speaks is merely an 
Irish colonial dialect are delusions which, he hopes no 
one will regret tO'See finally dispelled." For we have 
been accustomed to think that a few Irish colonists 
conquered Scotland and established a kingdom there. 
Hov/ever, the writer offers us some compensation. For 
he goes on to say, that " Lancashire, West Yorkshire, 
Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leices- 
tershire, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and 
part of Sussex are as Keltic as Perthshire and North 
Munster ; that Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, 
Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset, 
Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire and Bedford- 
shire are more so, and equal to North Wales and 
Leinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire 
exceed even this degree, and are on a level with South 
Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of course, is more Keltic 
than any other English county, and as much so 
as Argyll, Invernesshire or Connaught," and thus 
allows that a great proportion of the '* brutal Saxons '' 
are as Keltic as the Kelts themselves, just as 



6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

their descendants became more Irish than the 
Irish. 

With regard to the Irish people, it is interesting to 
read what strangers thought of them : — 

Spenser says : " The Irish are one of the most 
ancient nations that I know of in this world, and come 
of as mighty a race as the world ever brought 
forth." 

The Celts were large-bodied and large-hearted 
men. 

Ingentes animos ingenti corpore versant. 

The men of Tipperary are described as having 
" hearts as big as bulls, and to their foes as fierce, but 
to women or friend as soft as thrushes." They seem 
to have been a noisy people, fond of talking and 
laughter, but sympathetic and emotional, easily excited 
to action, impatient of suffering, hopeful and des- 
pondent by turns. " The Gauls," said Strabo, " march 
openly to their end, and are thus easily circumvented." 
The Celts of Ireland may have lost from never having 
been invaded and conquered by the Romans, but what 
they lost in organization they gained in freedom of 
spirit. The Irish at the time of Henry II's. invasion 
were something like the Celts of England when Caesar 
landed on the shores of Kent, free and unfettered, 
brave and warlike clans, which only wanted system 
and discipline to conquer their invaders. Tacitus tells 
us that Agricola maintained that Ireland could be 
conquered and held by a single legion, and that its 



THE CELTIC RACE. 7 

conquest was desirable from the Roman standpoint, as 
the neighbourhood of a free country made the Britons 
harder to govern. How near Ireland was to a Romcin 
invasion may be seen from a glance at the tv/enty- 
fourth chapter of the Life of Agricola, where we read 
that the Roman Governor of Britain had received one 
of the petty Irish kings, who had been driven out by 
internal faction, and detained him under the sem- 
blance of friendship till he could make use of him. But 
he was recalled by his jealous master, Domitian, in 
90 A.D., before he could effect his purpose. When 
Giraldus came to Ireland, in company with his Welsh 
relations, the Barrys and Fitzstephens, it struck him 
as a new land, " being separated from the rest of the 
known world." In his day, the Norman oppression, 
and the feudal system had created a vast change in 
the conditions of life for Briton and Saxon in England 
and Wales. But, thanks to the restlessness of the 
Irish Sea, Erin had so far escaped feudal thraldom as 
well as Roman conquest. 

At the time of Strongbow's invasion, the people 
were divided into tribes, with Brehons, Minstrels, 
Bards, and Harpers. Christian clergy had taken the 
place of the Pagan Druids. But all along the coast of 
Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford and Limerick, 
the Danes or Ostmen had built seaport towns. The 
Irish themselves preferred to live in the country. In 
their native woods they felt secure. In their houses 
of wattle and clay they enjoyed at least domestic 
peace, and subsisted on the produce of their farms, 



8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

while the inhabitants of the towns were supplied with 
groceries and wines of Poitou by Danish and French 
merchants. A people of pastoral habits, they did not 
wear armour, but were simply clad in woollen garments. 
Cambrensis said the Irish wore woollen cloths, chiefly 
black, because the sheep of Ireland were mostly of 
that colour. They dressed like barbarians, wearing 
light cloaks, which spread over their shoulders and 
reached to the elbows, and were made of different tex- 
tures and striped. Under these they wore linen shirts 
and breeches which ended in coloured shoes. When 
they took the oath to King John, the chiefs laid aside 
their girdles, skeans or daggers, and caps. King John 
plucked their beards, and tried to introduce English 
dress amongst them by having scarlet robes cut in the 
English fashion presented to the chieftains. But we 
find the Irish settlers adopting the dress of the Irish, 
and their manner of wearing the hair in glibbs or 
straight locks. The Statute of Kilkenny forbade the 
use of Irish dress and glibbs among the English of 
the Pale, " who adopted the Irish dress and looked on 
the long glibbs of the uncivilized people as their boast 
and ornament." 

It is a remarkable fact that an Act was passed at 
Westminster in the 28th year of Edward III. 
encouraging Irish frieze and exempting it from ulnage 
or wool tax. The brog which the Irish wore was made 
of " dried skins of beasts, or half-tanned leather, 
fastened by a thong." A buskin, which was discovered 
in a bog in Queen's County, is thus described — " It is 



THE CELTIC RACE. 9 

made of raw skin with the hair turned outwards, is 
open before, but was intended wh en on the leg to be 
laced in front with thongs of leather. The sole 
appears never to have been thicker than the upper 
part." 

The Irish, like the Gauls, preferred to fight naked. 
A Lord-Deputy writing to Henry VIII. after a des- 
cription of the gallowglasses said—'' the other sort, 
called Kernes, are naked men but only their shirts, and 
many times when they come to the bicker but bare 
naked." Their recreations in the field were the chase 
and horse-racing ; while at home they enjoyed music, 
poetry and genealogy. Of their wit and wisdom 
there is abundant proof in the proverbs and moral 
reflections of the Irish sages. Of these some of the 
most remarkable are : — 

The heaviest ear of corn is the one that lowliest 
bends its head. 

He that conquers himself conquers an enemy. 

It is better to be alone than in bad company. 

Do not show your teeth when you cannot bite. 

Better to come at the end of a feast than the 
beginning of a fight. 

One debt won't pay another. 

A promise is a debt. 

Fear is worse than fighting. 

An early description of one of the McMorroughs is 
worthy of quotation. It runs : " He was mounted on a 



10 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

horse which cost him four hundred cows. His horse was 
fair, and in his descent from the hill to us, he ran as 
swift as any stagg, hare, or the swiftest beast that I 
have seen. In his right hand he bare a long dart, 
which he cast from him with much dexterity. He 
was tall of stature, well composed, strong and active. 
His countenance was fierce and cruel. He wore a 
light pink robe over his shoulders." 



CHAPTER II. 

CELTIC TYPES IN WALES, 

There are also many connections — linguistic, national 
and historic — between Ireland and Wales, which are 
not generally known^ But it is not surprising that 
this should be the case, when we remember that the 
ancient Irish and the ancient Britons previous to the 
Roman invasion were the same race» The Britons 
were driven from the east and centre of Britain to the 
western hills and cliffs, where they found security 
against the Saxon invaders in their mountain fast- 
nesses, but still kept up constant intercourse with their 
Irish cousins. The native Irish and the native Welsh 
may be roughly regarded, therefore, as the represen- 
tatives of the same Celtic, or rather Iberian, race. 
For the Iberian element is predominant in Wales, 
while the Celtic type prevails in Scotland. Ireland 
represents both types equally. We may accordingly 
expect to find some similarities, at all events, among 
these nations, pointing back to a common descent. 

Taking up the language, not as experts, but as 
casual observers, we notice many words and turns of 
speech which are similar in both languages. For 
example, the Irish word for horse is capall, while the 
Welsh is ceffyl ; the Irish for God is Dia, the Welsh 
is Duw ; the Irish for black is dhuv, the Welsh is du. 



12 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Na is not in both languages. Ynys is Welsh for 
island, and inis, which occurs in so many names, as 
Inishbofin, Inishannon, is its Irish equivalent. Mor, 
which is found in Benmore, means great in Irish ; and 
mawr, which occurs in Pen maen mawr, a hill near 
Llanfairfechan, means great in Welsh. Egiyws means 
church in Welsh ; Eglish is church in Irish. These 
words seem to have a common source in the Latin 
Ecclesia, which again is derived from the Greek. 
Beann, which is found in the so-called Pins of Conne- 
mara, means peak, And this gave rise to the riddle — 
" Why have those pins no pints ? " The ansvv^er to 
which is — " Because they are principally composed of 
quartz ! " In Welsh the corresponding word is pen. 
Fionn or fin is fair in Irish. Gwyn is white in Welsh. 
Poll, which is found in Poulaphuca, means hole in 
Irish. Pwllwll means pool in Welsh, occurring in the 
well-known word — 

Llanfairpwllgwynygllgogerchwyrndrobwlltysilisgogo- 
goch, 

which is the name of a small church on an islet in the 
Menai Straits, but is generally shortened into Llanfair. 
P.O. 

It will suffice to add that gaber is Irish for goat, and 
gafar is Welsh, and that mac is Irish for son, and mab 
is Welsh. There is also a Kerry in Wales, near 
Montgomery. 

A peculiarity common to the Welsh and Irish is to 
call places after churches and saints. The list of Irish 



CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 13 

names beginning with Kil and Donagh (from the Latin 
Dominica) is legion, while in Welsh the list of words 
whose first syllable is Llan, pronounced tlan, with a 
guttural sound, and meaning holy land or church, are 
equally numberless. For example, Llanfair means 
the Church of Saint Mary, and Llangollen, the Church 
of St. Collen. This testifies to the piety of these 
ancient peoples. 

As a rule, the Welsh are more friendly to the Irish 
than to the English. They feel that they are nearer 
to each other in several points. They have the same 
fluency of speech — more dramatic, perhaps, than the 
Irish, but not more persuasive. They are equally 
emotional and excitable, and they have something of 
the Irish friendliness and politeness. Their great 
passion is poetry and music, and the Bardic contests, 
with which ancient Erin was so familiar, are still kept 
up in the Welsh valleys and hills, and cause much 
excitement and amusement among the people. Every 
small town has its own Eisteddfod or competition, and 
the victorious bard is chaired amid much enthusiasm 
and ceremony, and presented with an elaborate address 
by the defeated competitors. In Plas Mawr, an Eliza- 
bethan house in Conway, there is a bardic stone on 
which Carmen Sylva, the poetic Queen of Roumania, 
stood, declaring that the privilege was hers, after her 
admission to the ancient order of the bards. A friend 
of the writer's, who was returning from Snowdon, was 
received with open arms by a Welsh bard, who 
declared that the Irish and Welsh were brothers. It 



14 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

seems strange, therefore, that these nations have so 
little intercourse nowadays with each other. 

Knowing the common ancestry of the Irish and 
Welsh, we are not surprised to find the same monu- 
ments in both countries. The Druid's Circle at Pen- 
maen-mawr is one of the most remarkable ruins of this 
kind in the Principality. Its name has been given to 
it from its supposed connection with the Druids, It 
consists of eleven stones, some of them eight feet high, 
arranged in a circle. These stones are very weather- 
beaten, and evidently of great age. Between these, 
smaller stones are placed at intervals. This forms the 
inner circle, which is almost perfect. The outer is not 
so complete, and within this again there are traces of 
a still smaller circle, which is described by Mr. 
Longueville Jones in " Archaeologia Cambrensis " as 
" not concentric, but touching the inner circumference, 
as if it had been the foundation of a circular dwelling- 
house." The old idea that this was the sacrificial 
shrine of the Druids seems to have yielded to the 
now more generally accepted opinion that these 
remains are sepulchral, like New Grange and Knowth 
and Dowth, near Drogheda, the difference being that 
the mound has remained in the case of the latter, but 
has been removed in the Ccise of the former, where the 
foundation stones alone remain. Sir John Wynn, who 
wrote in the seventeenth century, was of opinion that 
the Druid's Circle, or Meini Hirion, as it is called, was 
the place where the kings of ancient Britain pitch ed 
their tents when they v/ere training their soldiers on 



CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 15 

these mountains. Others of equally strong imagina- 
tions have discovered traces of blood on the largest 
stone in the circle, and have declared that it is the 
sacrificial stone of the Druids. To pass on to Christian 
remains, a visit to the Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llan- 
gollen, reminds one of the equally wonderful remains 
of the ancient Cistercian foundation at Mellifont, near 
Drogheda. The plans of both might be compared 
with advantage. And both monasteries were built in 
charming valleys, thus keeping up the record of the 
Clara Valla, Clairveaux, Bernard's foundation. In a 
field close by the Abbey in the Valley of the Cross 
stands a pillar some eight feet high, now called the 
Pillar of Elisse, but some regard it as a mutilated 
cross. It is interesting to find that the same religious 
orders were established in the same period both in 
Ireland and Wales, a fact that furnishes a proof of the 
popularity of Bernard, the founder of the Order, whose 
great friend was Malachy of Armagh. We now come 
to the military and social connections between Wales 
and Ireland. It is well known that the invaders of 
Ireland, previous to the English subjugation of this 
country were Welshmen. They were the descendants 
of Nesta, a Welsh princess, and consisted for the most 
part of Fitzstephens, Fitzgeralds, and Barrys, The 
expedition was accompanied by that famous Arch- 
deacon, Giraldus Cambrensis, who eulogises his cousins, 
the Barrys, to the disparagement of Strongbow and his 
company. This Gerald of Wales wrote an interest- 
ing book on the Topography of Ireland, and another 



i6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

on the Conquest of Ireland. Both works are to be 
accepted with the proverbial grain of salt. 

But there are still more ancient connections between 
the Welsh and the Irish, in the story of which the 
famous Harlech Castle, now so well known through 
the " March of the Men of Harlech," and the Castell 
Dinas Bran, or Crow Castle, as the English call it, 
and Conway Castle, occupy prominent positions. In 
that ancient book, the " Mabinogion," it is said that 
Bran Bendigaid, or the Blessed, the son of Llyr, or 
Lear, a name familiar to all Shakespearian readers, was 
sitting upon the rock of Harlech when Matholwch, 
King of Ireland, came to woo his sister Bran wen, 
married her, and took her back to Erin. Matholwch 
got into trouble on his return, and sent for Bran, who 
came to his assistance. But Bran was defeated, all 
but seven of his followers slain, and he himself was 
wounded with a poisoned dart. Near Harlech are 
some ancient ruins called Muriau Gwyddelod, or the 
Irishmen's walls, which may commemorate this event. 

Another fort connected with this same Bran is 
Castell Dinas Bran, or the hill-fort of Bran, a rudely- 
built tower on a commanding eminence near Llangollen, 
where Bran kept his enemies at bay, and which he left 
in charge of his seven knights on his ill-fated ex- 
pedition to Ireland. The story of Bran's head is 
given in the Mabinogion. 

To come to Conway, with the noble structure of 
Edward I., and the ancient abbey founded by Llewellen 
the Great, we read of a fierce battle between the Welsh 



CELTIC TYPES IN WALES. 17 

and the English of the Marches over a vessel which 
had come from Ireland with a cargo of wine. The 
Welsh got the best of the fight, and eventually the 
ship with its wine fell into their hands, Again, it 
was undoubtedly due to his absence in Ireland that 
Richard II. lost his crown in England. There had 
been an insurrection in Ireland, and the King, who 
acted by fits and starts, suddenly roused himself, and 
hav-fng collected a great force, left his own shores, to 
which he was never to return as King again. For 
during his absence in the Green Isle Bolingbroke had 
returned from his exile, and had been joined by the 
most powerful nobles in the land. And when the King 
sailed in to Milford Haven, after leaving the greater 
part of his army to enrich the soil of Erin, he 
found that it was unsafe to land, and accordingly with- 
drew to Conway, where he entered into negotiations 
with his cousin, was allured to Flint Castle, and was 
surprised and seized by his enemies. 

Passing on to the reign of Charles I. and the Civil 
War, we find the Irishmen taking a conspicuous part 
in the defence of Conway Castle, which was held by 
Archbishop Williams for the King. But after the 
capture of the castle by General Mytton these poor 
fellows, who fought for King Charles, were seized, tied 
back to back, and thrown into the river from the castle 
walls. After the restoration of King Charles II. this 
fortress was handed over to Edward Earl of Conway, 
who quietly dismantled the castle, and sent the timber, 
iron, and lead over to Ireland, which is thus connected 



t8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

with several links, romantic and metallic, with the 
grand old castle of North Wales. 

This much will suffice to show that the Celts of Ire- 
land, Scotland and Wales, were branches of the same 
great race of Gaels or warriors. Even though they 
may have developed differently, owing to their different 
environments and circumstances, we find in all the 
same fundamental characteristics. And although they 
have been separated for centuries, they have still cer- 
tain customs, traditions and sentiments in common, to 
which they show the same Celtic loyalty and by 
which their nationality is proven. In the following 
chapter an attempt will be made to describe the ele- 
ments of ancient Irish society. 



CHAPTER III. 

ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 

The first thing perhaps that would strike a modern 
student of ancient Irish story as strange is the tribal 
mode of life. There is nothing, however, uncivilised 
in the tribal system. It is simply a more primitive 
state of life than the national, and survived the storms 
of time until a much later period in Scottish history. 
When one has read a little about the customs of our 
early ancestors one cannot vote them altogether bar- 
barians. In the first place, there were several large 
and independent tribes under their own chiefe, and 
each tribe was divided into several septs, each of which 
consisted of a number of families. 

There was a chief of the tribe elected by the free 
and independent voters of that day — the freemen — 
and there was at the same time a minor chief of each 
sept in the tribe who was elected by the principal 
members of the sept. Thus we find that when Brian 
Boru was the chief of the Dalcasian tribe, Menma was 
chief of the Macnamaras of Clare, a sept of that tribe 

Members of a tribe were bound by the closest ties 
to one another, frequently fighting side by side against 
common foes, often celebrating common victories and 
common festivals sacred and secular. They had many 
a bond of union, the nation has not, because of its 
more complex organisation. 



20 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

It is said, too, that there was a certain community 
of goods. The tribe owned the land. Kings and 
chiefs held it only by virtue of their office. The chief 
was allowed a certain quantity of land and certain 
cesses and tribute from the freemen of his tribe. But 
he was expected to give hospitality to strangers, to 
supply the sinews of war, to repair roads, and give 
stock to the needy. He, therefore, must have found 
it hard at times to make both ends meet, especially in 
time of war, when he had to lead his men to battle 
and at the same time superintend the commissariat. 

When a chief died the members of the tribe 
assembled to elect his successor. In this election they 
were influenced by qualities of valour and character 
as well as of birth. They always tried to get the fittest 
man, "the next in blood that was worthiest and 
fittest." In cases where two rival names were put for- 
ward and it was found hard to settle the matter without 
a conflict, the rivals were allowed to settle their claims 
by mortal combat — a very wise policy in such a system 
of life, when the safety of the tribe often depended 
on the popular rule of a single chief. When a chief 
was elected he nominated his most capable son as 
Tanist or substitute to take his place in battle, or in 
state when he was unable to be present in person. In 
the sept or sub-division of tribe there was a similar 
election of chief and Tanist. Under such a condition 
of things the home was naturally the centre of life ; in 
fact, the tribe and sept were but larger editions of the 
fa.mily life. 



ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 21 

The voice of the elected chief was supreme in cases 
of bad conduct. He was advised by a certain class of 
men called Brehons. These were the ancient lawyers 
of Erin. Their laws were not written, but handed 
down from one generation to another, and regulated 
every department of life. A candidate for admission 
into this select order had to serve an apprenticeship of 
twelve years. The Brehon laws are called natural 
laws, such as would naturally be formulated in a natural 
state of life like that of the tribe. 

We might, therefore, expect that they would be 
superseded in a more artificial form of society. Several 
of these laws concerning the division of property, 
fosterage, and ordinary relations of life are very in- 
teresting. They show what an innocent but cultured 
people the ancient Celts were. 

We can read these laws now, for after the introduc- 
tion of Christianity, the Brehon laws were committed 
to writing after certain precepts had been expurgated 
which did not agree with New Testament teaching. 
" For the law of nature had been quite right, except 
the faith and its obligations, and the harmony of the 
Church and the people." This ancient code is called 
the " Senchus Mor." 

It is supposed that these Brehon laws were the legal 
rules in force in the Aryan race before they came to 
Ireland. And they were preserved in their primitive 
form here because Ireland was left pretty much to 
herself by the Romans in early times. I will give you 



22 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

a few examples to show what an elaborate and honour- 
able code it was. 

Take the '' Law of Distress," 

This was the principle on which damages could be 
recovered. In case of theft or loan not returned, the 
man whose property had been taken or not returned 
might serve a notice on the delinquent. And if 
this was not attended to he could then seize 
his cattle (for example), and put them in a pound. 
Then the matter would be brought before one of the 
Brehons, who always acted as arbitrators in such dis- 
putes. If the delinquent did not appear, the plaintiff 
would be awarded the cattle he had seized, and to this 
judgment the defendant had to submit without demur. 

Now. there was no capital punishment recognised in 
the Brehon code. In case of murder, the murderer 
had to pay a heavy fine, or ' eric,' in compensation to the 
friends and relatives of the murdered man in order to 
remove any desire or ground for vengeance. 

St. Patrick once demanded '' life for life." 

On one occasion, hearing that there was a plot to 
kill him, he dressed himself as a charioteer and drove, 
while the charioteer donned the robes of the saint. 
As they passed through a gorge, an arrow flew from 
behind a rock, and lodged in the breast of the charioteer, 
who fell dead to the bottom of the car. 

St. Patrick demanded the life of the murderer. 

The matter was referred to the chief Brehon, who 
decided that the murderer should die, or " pass to a 
new life in heaven," as the saint had predicted. The 



ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 23 

Irish, however, refused to try the experiment, and 
declined to give up the Hfe of their countryman. It 
was not until the reign of Elizabeth that capital punish- 
ment was introduced into Ireland. No wonder then 
that the people instinctively rebel against this inhuman 
practice. 

To turn to more pleasant topics, there was a pecu- 
liar law called the Bee-jtidgment, which has no signi- 
ficance now. At one time, however, bees formed a 
staple industry in Ireland. Mead, the favourite drink, 
was made from honey, and every dish that required 
sweetening was sweetened by honey. Of course, this 
was all changed when sugar was introduced in the i6th 
century. Now, as the bees used to gather honey from 
the flowers that grew in the neighbouring fields, every 
three years the owner was compelled to give a certain 
portion of honey to the neighbours in lieu of the 
honey that had been extracted from their fields. 

This one law shows the fine sense of justice the 
ancient Irish had. Again, according to the Brehon 
code, there was a certain allowance made for the poor 
and sick of the tribe, who were rightly considered to 
have a claim upon the strong and well-to-do. They 
had a public relieving officer for the poor and 
a public physician for the sick, both of whom were 
salaried by the community. 

There is a quaint description of the relieving 
Brehon. He is humorously termed " a pillar of en- 
durance," and naturally so, to judge from the character 
of his occupation. '' One able to stand the reddening 



24 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

of his face without insult to his tribe " — that is, able 
to stand the insolence of beggars without being put to 
the blush — such was the relieving officer in tliose 
days. The doctors, too, were people of importance. 
Some were called lawful and others unlawful. If they 
were authorised to take off a limb or cut a sinew 
without having to pay damages, even if they did it 
badly, they were considered duly qualified. But if 
they had not received this diploma they indulged 
their taste for surgery at their own expense. There 
was humour in this arrangement. When a man got 
ill he was carried at once to the doctor's house, and 
put under his treatment there and then. This house 
was generally built by a running stream, whence pure 
water could be procured. It had four doors, so tliat 
everything that was done within might be open to 
inspection ; a door being at every quarter of the wind, 
so that the house might also be well ventilated. The 
open air cure is, therefore, no novelty in Ireland. 

We read of hot baths being used for rheumatism, 
and of elaborate processes of shampooing. Keating, 
in his " History of Ireland " tells of a remarkable cure 
effected by one of these physicians some 200 years 
before St. Patrick's visit. A warrior was carried into 
the primitive dispensary with a broken spear head in 
the fleshy part of his thigh. The surgeon failed to ex- 
tract it. At last he heated a ploughshare red hot in 
the fire, and rushed at the warrior, ordering him to 
show him the place. The poor fellow started up in a 
terrible fright, thinking the physician was going to 



ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 25 

roast him alive. But the effort he made in jumping 
up was sufficient to force the splint up to the surface 
of the wound, and it was then easily drawn out. 

No doubt that treatment was as effective in that 
particular case as the scientific methods of to-day. 
But I am sure we are thankful we are not left com- 
pletely to the mercy of such irresponsible persons, 
whose skill was small and whose fees were great, being 
in proportion to the position of their patient. A 
bishop would have to pay 42 cows, while a horseboy 
would have only to pay two for the doctor's services. 

We will now return to the family life. Community 
of goods was the basis of the family. They had all 
things in common. When a householder died, there 
was a redistribution of the goods among the sons, who 
each received an equal portion, according to the 
principle of Gavelkind. The dwellings were circular 
in form, and consisted of wickerwork covered with 
clay or earth, and were generally white, like the 
cottages of the country people to-day. The roof was 
made of dried rushes, sloping outwards from the 
centre. 

Saint Baorthin was one day standing under a tree 

during a shower of rain, and as he watched the rain 

drops forming pools of water at his feet, he said, in a 

fit of inspiration — 

Of drops a pond is formed, 
Of rods a round house is built. 

Families of the better classes lived in several of 
these little huts joined together and surrounded by a 



26 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

palisade, a mound and a hedge. The apartments of 

the women were fenced off from the quarters of the 

men, who generally slept on beds of rushes arranged 

around the wall of the great dining hall. In the centre 

of this hall were the stove and the chimney piece, 

while on the walls were arranged the different weapons 

used in war and the chase, and the domestic utensils. 

Of these one may see some excellent specimens in 

the National Museum. There are bronze daggers, 

rapier blades, shields, and spears of beautiful finish and 

exquisite shape in that collection. There is also a 

large bronze caldron, in which venison was boiled, 

made of spherical plates joined together by small 

rivets ; the handles are handsomely wrought rings, 

while the rim of the caldron is ornamented with a boss 

and trumpet-shaped designs. This relic has been 

assigned to the iron period. Another caldron even 

more beautiful, but not so well preserved, is of gold 

bronze. While such ornaments as these used to hang 

from pegs in the walls, the well-known distaff or 

spinning wheel stood in the corner of the room, along 

the sides of which we can imagine we see dark forms 

wrapt in their cloaks asleep, across whose hardy features 

a flickering ash now and then throws a faint glimmer. 

These are the Celts, a race created fot the game of 

war, whose powerfully-"Buirt and athletic frames were 

the admiration of the Roman historian. The chief is 

easily distinguished. He wears a gold gorget around 

his neck, and a chain of gold hangs from his silk tunic. 

Gold rings are on his fingers and gold bands adorn his 



ANCIENT CODES OF HONOUR. 27 

arms, while his cloak is fastened by a large ornamented 
pin, which has a handle and a blade of some dozen 
inches, showing v/hat a formidable weapon Hamlet's 
"bare bodkin" must have been. Great spurs are 
strapped to his shoes of brown leather, for he is a 
famous horseman and breeder of horses like his present 
day representativeSo 

Next to him are ranged his most faithful retainers, 
men who fight and hunt by his side in the day, and 
at night hold the wassail together. These are prin- 
cipally Fenia or militiamen, who have sworn not to fly 
before nine, not to take a dowry with a wife, never to 
betray a friend or deny a stranger, or offer violence to 
a wayfarer. In fact, they are Ireland's Ancient Order 
of Chivalry, no less renowned than Arthur's Knights 
of the Round Table. Their hair is long and fair. 
Their dress consists of a woollen cape with hood, a 
tunic reaching to the knees, bound by a scarf folded 
round the waist, and tight-fitting pantaloons. They 
have no shoes. Such are the figures in the dining 
hall. 

Passing out of this hall you enter the kitchen, v^^hich 
is well stored with venison and beef, fish and fowl, 
honey and milk, butter and beer. Leaving the house 
and going into the open air we notice that the dwelling 
places stand in a group, and are surrounded by a wide, 
deep trench flanked on the outer side by a mud wall, 
and on the inside by a blackthorn hedge. Across this 
hedge no stranger dare pass without the permission oi 
the proprietor. 



28 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Once inside one of these family walls the blood- 
stained wretch was secure from punishment. The 
avenger dare not cross the hedge. Not that crime was 
winked at in those days, but because it was considered 
a matter' of honour that the owner of the house should 
give up any criminal who sought refuge with him, " for 
he who let a criminal escape was considered a culprit." 

Yet the sanctity of family abode was always so 
strong among the Irish that they often harboured, as 
they do still, criminals who threw themselves on the 
protection of their relations. 

With regard to the inviolable wall that ran around 
the family penates, it is interesting to note that the law 
of trespass was extended to animals, so that if a young 
pig went through the fence a fine was inflicted on the 
owners, the hedge of thorny plants being expressly 
made " to stop every gap through which a dog or boar 
could thrust his head." 

Particular pains were taken in making this hedge. 
Every member of the family was cpmpelled to take 
his turn in the work. In order to have this carried 
out, it was arranged that each should give his food at 
night into the hands of others, so that he should not 
forget to go to the hedge for it in the morning, when 
the victuals of any person who did not come to the 
hedge for the day's work were consumed by the others 
with impunity. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 

The social system of the ancient Irish was a most 
intricate affair, and must have frequently exhausted 
the patience, and puzzled the brains, of the Brehons, 
who acted as heralds and registrars. The numerous 
cliques in the social life of our small community, of 
which strangers so bitterly complain, doubtless had 
their origin in the divisions of ancient Irish society. 
The principles of ''fraternity, liberty, and equality" 
would have been even more revolutionary in the 
good old days of yore than they seemed when 
first proclaimed in imperial France. What would 
the free and independent voters of modern Ireland 
say to the seven distinct classes into which the 
Celtic tribes were divided, according to the Crith 
Gabhlach ? 

The organisation of the tribe seems to have been 
further complicated by the Danish invaders, who 
brought a more elaborate system of society, as well as 
more approved architectural designs, into the country. 
Their presence in the country certainly influenced 
the social life of the Irish by transforming the family 
life of the tribe more or less into a military system, 
and by compelling the tribes, who had been kept 



30 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

separate by vanity, jealousy, and misrepresentation, to 
unite in self-defence. It is, however, as hard to say 
to what degree, and in what special way, this foreign 
influence worked as it is to describe in detail the 
constitution of the ancient Irish tribe, which was 
already in the course of disintegration when first it 
emerged into the light of history. At the outset, we 
may say that it is difficult for us Irishmen of the 
pi'esent day to conceive a state of society in which 
the individual had no rights, save as a member of 
his family, in which there was so small an element 
of property as hardly to qualify a man to say : 
" Who dare tread on the tail of my coat," and in 
which there was practically no government of any 
sort "to be against." The tuath or clan, consist- 
ing of people who had sprung from the same 
ancestor, was the political and social unit. Their 
bond of unity was blood, not land. This cohesion, 
based on consanguinity, could not be altered by 
removal or migration from one locality to another. 
There was little love of their native land in the 
hearts of the Irish Gaels. In this point they differ 
from many of us who love our dear, old Ireland. 
But they were deeply attached to their clan and the 
members of it. The family had no fixed residence 
in the earliest times, but, like the Dutch " trekkers," 
the ancestors of the Boers, they were generally on 
the move, of course within the territory of the tribe, 
as their cattle required fresh pasture, and as they 
themselves sought new hunting grounds. The 



THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 31 

authority was accordingly vested in the father of the 
family, who, like the Arab sheik, was the patriarch 
of the establishment, and to whom every member 
owed obedience. In fact, their safety and welfare 
depended on their standing by members of the same 
body, and on their compliance with the directions 
of their common head. The household would not, 
however, be necessarily limited to the man, his wife, 
and his children, but like the Roman familia, and 
the Greek oikos, and the Jewish family, would 
embrace the servants and the slaves, the guests 
and the sojourners, the relations and armed re- 
tainers, who were living with them. Each of these — 
except the slaves — had their voice in the controll- 
ing of the family affairs, and while the constitution 
was patriarchal in principle, it became democratic 
in practice. For it was more independent of the 
father than a modern family is. Now-a-days, when 
a parent dies, his household is generally broken up, 
but no such result followed the death of the father of 
the ancient Irish family. They simply elected 
another — the most capable, not necessarily the eldest — 
of his blood relations to take his place, and every- 
thing went on just as before. But when land became 
acquired by the family, as it did in different ways, 
honest and dishonest, although in theory all land was 
common, a new system was put into operation, which 
had the effect of largely extending the family interest. 
It was called the Geilfine, from Gilla, the five fingers 
of the hand, and it worked in this way : — If the man 



32 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

who acquired the land had as many as five sons, he 
planted out each of them, as they grew up to be men, 
in a household of their own, giving them their portion 
of his property, until he came to the fifth, whom he 
kept with him as the heir of the original home. Thus 
the Geilfine, or group of five families, was constituted. 
Then the youngest, in his turn, planted out his sons 
upon the residue of his inheritance, keeping the 
youngest again to- be their particular heir. Thus 
another Geilfine came into being, which was called 
the Deirbhfine, or '• particular group." The process 
was repeated, and the larfine, or " after group," was 
formed, and then, for the fourth time, a Geilfine was 
formed, which was the Indfine, or " end group." The 
reader will notice that there were seventeen households 
established by this means — four groups of four and 
the original home. No further subdivisions of land 
was made after this ; but each household became, in 
its turn, a new centre of four groups, until the 
number 17 was again reached, and then a fresh 
start was m.ade. In this system we see how the 
tribe, in the original sense of the term, was constituted. 
Bound together by mutual rights and obligations, 
joining in common worship, and having all things 
common at the first, the family laid the foundation 
for that wider, though looser, unit, the tribe, which, 
in its turn, with many other tribes, helped to form 
the State. 

In the tribe the families were represented by the 
heads of the households when they met together to 



THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM 33 

discuss any important question. The direct descendants 
however, of the original heads of these houses con- 
stituted a select class, who exercised certain priestly 
and military functions in virtue of their high descent, 
and from these the chief was generally selected. At 
first the different families, say of the O'Connors, even 
after the tribe had been fully organised, settled their 
private arguments among themselves, and seldom or 
never called in the tribe to adjudicate upon their 
family quarrels. New developments of the tribe arose 
when it went forth to conquer their neighbours. 
In the conquered district the victorious tribe were 
planted, each family receiving, like the Cromwellians 
of later days, a due proportion of ground. We have 
here the germ of the landed aristocracy. Moreover, 
as a large number of the defeated tribe were taken 
prisoners, and their wives and children, by the new- 
comers, and as the refugees from the other tribes 
were naturally received into the service to swell the 
ranks of the powerful families, most frequently, indeed, 
of the chiefs themselves, we begin to notice the 
growth of political power, family influence, and per- 
sonal wealth — new factors in the onward march of the 
tribe. For, while the weaker families of the same 
tribe who were originally on the same footing as the 
others, sank in the social scale, the numerically 
stronger would rise in the same proportion. 

The principal chief, with his bodyguard of warlike 
retainers, would stand at the head; then came the 

D 



34 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

great chiefs and their armed followers ; then the 
smaller chiefs and their families, then the free classes 
and at the very bottom of the social scale were found 
the crowd of people who had no civil rights or privi- 
leges, although the great majority of them had been 
the original settlers in the land. But, by degrees, 
the social life of the tuath became more complicated, 
as the element of wealth began to enter largely into 
the consideration of rank, and as the tuath or tribe, 
by the addition of other tuaths, began to grow into a 
small kingdom in which the original freemen of the 
original tuath were gradually reduced to a position of 
serfdom or absorbed among the unprivileged class. 
The Brehons made an elaborate classification of 
society, according to scale, of which it will be sufficient 
to give a very bare outline. It appears that the people 
who resided on the tribe land — which is generally co- 
extensive with the modern barony — were divided into 
two principal classes — the Neme and the Feini, the 
former consisting of those who had a position in the 
community and the privileges of freemen, the others 
composed of those less fortunate members of society 
who had neither rank nor position nor privilege in the 
tribe. We find a near parallel to these orders in the 
Roman classification of Patricians and Plebeians, 
which was, indeed, common to all the Aryan nations. 

The higher order, again, was further sub-divided 
into several classes. The lowest of these consisted of 
men who had a dwelling-house and a portion, no 



THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 35 

matter how small, of the tribe land. If a farmer had 
a small farm with ten cows he rose one step in the 
social scale, and if he managed to acquire more stock 
and was able to keep a few retainers he climbed up the 
social ladder again and became a noble, a '' flaith," 
having been an " aire " before. 

The manner in which the higher classes of the com- 
munity extended their influence over the poorer, con- 
sidering the primitive stage of society, was highly 
ingenious. We must remember that the object 
desired by the '' flaith " order was not merely wealth, 
but power. And their plan was this. A man's wealth 
consisted in the number of cows he possessed. There 
was, however, only a certain amount of the tribe land 
available for each member. Accordingly, the 
wealthiest cowowners adopted the expedient of hiring 
out cows to the poorer graziers, who were glad to 
have the cattle, for several reasons, pecuniary and 
social. But the conditions of the loan were worthy 
of the modern Jew and the ancient Roman, for, if the 
debtor could not pay his debt he became the vassal of 
his creditor, whose influence was thus increased by an 
addition to the number of his retainers. It was in 
this way that the powerful class of '' lords " arose, who 
claimed to have the right of coshering upon their 
tenants, from each of whom they exacted free quarters 
and support for a certain number of days on their hunt- 
ing or warlike expeditions. There was, indeed, much 
to be condemned in the treatment the wealthier classes 



36 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

gave the poorer in those times, which are so often 
spoken of as the golden age of Erin. For they often 
compelled them, even against their will, to take their 
cattle on their own harsh terms, in order that they 
might have a safe investment at the risk of their 
weaker brethren, at whose freedom they thus aimed a 
deadly blow, with a view to their own aggrandisement. 
For it was the acquisition of these personal rights over 
their debtors that constituted the distinction of the 
'•flaith" or highest order of the community. The 
lowest class of " flaiths " was called the aire-desa, i.e., 
a free man who had the right of hiring out cattle. 
And, naturally enough, in their desire to rise higher, 
they all took advantage of this law, which oppressed 
the poor. 

It is commonly but wrongly supposed that property 
formed the only basis of rank among the Irish, for 
though there was a fixed property qualification for the 
higher grades, unless that property was retained 
through three successive generations — grandfather, 
father, and son — the rank was lost. It was that cus- 
tom, no doubt, which gave rise to the familiar saying 
that " it takes three generations to make a gentleman." 
The Geilfine system, which has been explained, was, 
doubtless, invented to meet this regulation by securing 
the retention of the property in the family. 

The privileges of the community, which were en- 
joyed by the upper classes of ''■ flaiths " and " aires " 
and were denied to the lower class of" feini," consisted 



THE CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM. 37 

of sitting in the assembly, of giving asylum, and of 
representing those under their protection. Here was 
another means cleverly devised by the more influen- 
tial members of the community for extending their 
power. For it stands to reason that the tie between 
them and their retainers, who could not even sue a 
member of the higher order who had injured them, 
unless accompanied by their patron, was bound to be- 
come a very close one indeed. 

The law of evidence also bore heavily upon the 
members of the lowest class. For their testimony was 
not accepted. It was these laws and customs that 
helped to break up the unity of the tribe and 
kingdom. And while the great man, with his vassals 
and retainers, who consisted largely of foreign mer- 
cenaries, refugees, and the original inhabitants of the 
land, oppressed the poorer members of his own tribe, 
the latter were compelled to combine for protection. 
And thus there arose a system of guilds in the land. 
Guild, said to come from a Celtic word giall, signifying 
pledge. A guild meant a co-partnership in labour. 
According to the Brehon law, guilds were for the 
mutual benefit and assurance between co-partners. The 
candidate for membership in a guild had to pledge 
himself that the responsibility of the body should be his. 
The people of the lower ranks were thus rendered 
more secure against their political enemies, and their 
own political status was raised. For example., with 
regard to the giving of testimony — a right denied to the 



38 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

poorest man individually — several poor men by com- 
bining together could qualify one of their guild to 
represent each member of the guild in a law suit. By 
this method, artisans, handicraftsmen, and poor 
graziers had some one to represent them individually, 
and to see that they were not wronged by the richer 
members of society. And by this system the personal 
rights of the poorest were secured, and trade and 
labour were protected from the tyrannical encroach- 
ments of the chief and his alien crowd of fighting men, 
on the one side, and from the cruel oppression of the 
wealthy on the other. But it is easy for anyone to see 
at a glance that the elements of disruption were even 
now at work in the State. For a kingdom divided 
against itself cannot stand. Between the chief, 
supported by his foreigners, or fuidhirs, and the 
wealthyclasses, backed by their retainers and vassals, 
the labouring class came to the wall, and the tribe soon 
followed them. For even the mighty power of Rome 
was undermined, and went under when it allowed such 
an absurd and cruel state of affairs to exist. From a 
glance at the constitution of ancient Irish society we 
may safely infer that the greatest pledge of welfare and 
prosperity that our country possesses at the present 
hour lies in the protected and improved condition of 
the working and farming classes. 



CHAPTER V. 

ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY. — THE CHIEF. 

The Irish Chief was a very important personage. It 
was true that he did not own the land, but he had 
certain rights which prescriptive use had made his 
inheritance. Of these one was the privilege of 
coshering on his people, who were bound to support 
him and his followers with a certain number of meals 
or for a specified number of days when on marauding 
or hunting expeditions. What had originally been 
wrested from the clansmen by force became in the 
course of time a gracious concession. For the common 
people were glad to welcome their chief under their 
roof no matter whether he would eat them out of 
house and home or not. They rejoiced to spend and 
be spent in such a cause. So much so that the say- 
ing '' Devour me, but defend me " passed into a proverb. 
This national custom was greatly opposed by the 
Government, which perceived to what excesses and 
unlawful relations it might lead, and what obstructions 
it might offer to the peaceful settlement of the country. 
Indeed, it often happened that an outlawed chief could 
not be found or hunted to earth so long as he had a 
single follower to give him the shelter of his cabin and 
the security of his hearth. Archbishop King speaks 



40 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

of the number of Irish gentlemen who, though dis- 
possessed of their lands, hovered about their ancient 
inheritance, receiving board and lodging from their 
former tenants, or joined the bands of Tories who 
roamed over the country, striking a blow wherever 
they could against the new settlers. This custom of 
coshering on their dependents created a mutual under- 
standing and good will between the follower and his 
chief, and, while it helped the former to respect him- 
self and to carry himself with deference, but without 
servility, to his betters, it often paved the way for a 
deeper union between the tribesman and his lord, who 
very often married the daughter of a clansman. Hence 
it was that when the English came to Ireland they 
were principally struck by the independent, though 
courteous, air of the tribesmen in the presence of their 
chiefs, at a time when the Englishmen of the same 
position in life were regarded by their masters as 
dogs and churls. But this difference of manner 
between the peasants of England and the peasants of 
Ireland in the olden days has an explanation which it 
is only fair to our English cousins to give. While the 
Irish Prince and his native followers — not speaking 
of the mercenaries — were of the same blood and race, 
the Saxon thane was completely different in nation- 
ality and religion from the poor Briton he had 
crushed by his cruelty and debased by his tyranny. 
Driven out of his country and forced to flee into the 
mountains of Wales, the Christian Briton determined 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 41 

that he would not spread the truths of his religion 
among his oppressors, for ' why should he lead the 
souls of those who had ruined him to salvation ? ' So 
he reasoned. It was, therefore, left to the Irish to 
convert the Saxons to Christianity. 

Another custom of the Irish which helped to con- 
solidate the forces of the tribe was fosterage. The sons 
of the chief were settled among the families of the 
tribe, given out to be trained and fostered by them. 
Thus the young chief would grow up in the bosom of 
his people, who loved their foster children as dearly 
as they loved their own, and bequeathed to them a 
child's portion. For this privilege of wardship they 
were not paid in the case of the son of a chief, but 
they had to pay. Campion tells us that commonly 
500 kine and better were given to win a nobleman's 
child to foster. In the records of the Earls of Kildare 
we read long lists of the gifts of the Irishry to foster 
with that family. We cannot estimate too highly the 
advantage of this custom to the tribe and the chief. 
The clansmen got to know and love him whom they 
had taught to be swift and fearless in the chase, and 
they followed him with confidence to battle, while the 
chief had formed many an attachment among the 
ranks of those whom he was called upon to lead and 
govern. Many and many a time did his foster- 
brethren form a bodyguard for their chief through 
which the enemy could not break save over 
their dead bodies. Many and many a time did the 



42 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

chieftain's band hew out a path of safety for a 
wounded foster-brother in the madness of the contest. 
But it is not to be imagined that this custom of 
fosterage was confined to the sons of the chief. It was 
the general method of education and training for the 
young. Suppose we allow our imaginations to travel 
back to the sixth century, and ask what system of 
discipline was then in vogue for the young. The 
reliable histories of the nation and books on its national 
life answer that there was, considering the times, a 
very elaborate and judicious rnethod of education in 
use. The father and mother of the child would first 
settle in their minds what friend of theirs would take 
the best care of the boy and teach him all he required 
to know, and, at the same time, not allow him to 
forget his parents. Then, one fine morning, they, 
with some of their relations, would go to the house of 
this friend and solemnly make over the boy to his 
care, giving him all responsibility over the child, and 
permission to deal with him as he thought fit. And 
then they would retire, leaving their son with his new 
guardian. On that day, or the following, the lad of 
tender years would be introduced to life and labour. 
In the company of his foster parent he would be 
brought to the fields and shown the ground which he 
would have to learn to till. The cattle which he would 
have to herd would be pointed out to the boy "all 
tears." Then he would see the wild colts he would 
have to break in ; the kilns in which he would have to 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 43 

work, and the forests he would have to clear. The 
foster parent would then bring him back to the house 
and point out the domestic duties he would be required 
to perform, the wool he would learn to dress, and the 
weapons he would be taught to wield. And, as soon 
as would be convenient, the lad would be brought to 
the bard of the neighbourhood, who would be engaged 
to teach him the poetry, history, and music of his 
people. As the bard was a very important person, 
one who was associated by his office with the loftiest 
traditions and highest circles of the land, a brief 
digression on this subject will be permitted. 

The bard was one of the privileged members of the 
community. His office was hereditary, and he had 
not merely to sing the history of his tribe and nation, 
but he had to teach it. In those early days, when 
writing was almost unknown, or a difficult accomplish- 
ment, the memories of men retained the folk-lore of 
the land which the bards were the means of handing 
down from father to son. It was in this way that the 
great poems, or collection of poems, which have been 
attributed to Homer, were preserved. As the 
Homeridse, or school of poets, collected and revised 
the stories of their race enshrined in matchless verse, 
so the bards of Erin passed along the line of gene- 
rations the poetical traditions of their people. 

The Irish were a song-loving if not a musical 
race, and their national bards kept alive the ancient 
spirit of their forefathers by their stirring melodies of 



44 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

the great and glorious past, when the Scots went forth 
from the northern shores to conquer Alba and to 
stay the Roman advance beyond the Tweed, when the 
virtue and piety of the race were a sufficient pledge 
for the safety of woman and child, and when the harp 
never vibrated to any but strains of valorous deeds 
and suffering nobly borne. It was the invincible 
inspiration of these martial and manly airs the 
invaders sought, and vainly sought, to suppress by 
their edicts against the bards, who represented the 
spirit of the nation, as they gave utterance to its 
mighty strivings and emotions. The same cruel 
policy was carried out in Wales, and the voice of the 
national bard was choked lest it should continue to 
fire the spirit of the vanquished race. But the harp of 
Tara was still voiceful as of yore. The spell of silence 
had not yet fallen upon its tuneful strings, and Giraldus, 
the Welshman, who had often heard the slow and 
measured strains of the same instrument on the Cam- 
brian hills around Brecknock, records his astonishment 
at the wondrous skill of the Irish harper, and the wild 
gaiety of his tunes. But the Irish bard was a warrior 
as well as a singer. He buckled on his sword, and led 
the way to perish or conquer in the front of the battle, 
as Moore describes in his well-known lines :— 

" The minstrel boy to the war is gone, 
In the ranks of death you'll find him, 
His father's sword he has girded on 
And his wild harp slung behind him." 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 45 

Such was the man to whom the Hterary education of 
the lad was entrusted, and we may rest assured that 
it was in safe keeping. Judged by its tendency to 
produce the end required — namely, a fine-spirited and 
industrious, a useful and chivalrous man, the education 
of that day can compare not unfavourably with that of 
our National Board. 

After some years the parents would return for their 
son, and if they found that the foster- parent had faith- 
fully fulfilled his duties, they gave him a handsome 
present according to their means, from three to sixteen 
cows. But if they did not consider, after examination, 
that his education had been sufficiently looked after, 
they brought him straight to the Brehon, the judge, 
who put the boy through his facings, and if he found 
that he had not been instructed properly, inflicted a 
fine upon the foster parent, which was immediately 
handed over by the Brehon to the lad, because on him 
the injury of want of learning had been inflicted. The 
sons of the wealthier classes were not taught manual 
labour, but riding, swimming, hunting, and chess- 
playing, accomplishments which tended to make them 
sociable as well as dexterous, courteous as well as 
courageous. Their training in military exercises was 
somewhat elaborate, and they " were allowed a horse 
to ride in the time of races." But in later years they 
were instructed in Latin, Greek, and Celtic literature. 

There was the very same arrangement for the girls 
as for the boys. They were handed over to foster- 



46 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

parents when very young, and left to the really tender 
mercies of the matron of the establishment, who looked 
after them and fitted them to fulfil their social functions 
and domestic duties with appropriate grace. And 
this she was capable of doing, as she was selected 
from among the members of the same social class to 
which the parents of the girl belonged. While the poorer 
maidens were taught to churn and knead — in fact, to 
be useful housekeepers ; those belonging to a higher 
station in life were instructed in embroidery and the 
loom, and so were fitted to adorn the homes of the 
proud chieftains, in the management of which they 
had an equal voice. This method of education strikes 
us as being simple and effective. Children as a rule 
are more easily trained by kind strangers than by 
indulgent parents. And this tie between the children 
and their guardians became very strong, and so had a 
great influence in binding the members of the clan 
together by the very closest bonds of friendship. 

It is interesting to note that the education question 
was always paramount in Irish circles. As early as 
574 A.D. we find the King of Ireland presiding over a 
council of chiefs and noblemen which was convened 
to arrange a course of studies for the different schools, 
a primitive form, no doubt, of the present National 
Board, which has done so much good for the children 
of our country. 

The Irish chief was not only an educated gentle- 
man, at a time when the commonest Irishman, as 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 47 

Prendergast well said, had something in him of the 
gentleman — he was a hospitable and courteous host. 
He rejoiced in dispensing hospitality. To refuse to do 
so were in his eyes a breach of honour, to be punished 
in another. Kincora, the residence of Brian Boroihme, 
was proverbial for the lavish entertainment offered to 
the passing stranger. " Go over to the great feast \k 
the dun," they would say to him who approached, 
''the head of the weir." A characteristically Irish 
record of the ceade mille failthe there extended is pre- 
served in the Munster welcome. " Were mine the 
boire of the Dane or the wine of Kincora, it would be 
poured out for you." Richard Stanihurst, in his 
account of his doings in Ireland, relates that he used 
to see the crowds assembled to hear the judgment of 
the Brehons delivered under some ancient tree or from 
some historic stone, and as they dispersed, they followed 
the chiefs who had invited them to supper, in long 
lines, down the hill and says that he was the proudest 
chieftain who brought home the greatest number of 
guests. This lavish hospitality has been carried down 
to our own day by the county families of Connaught, 
whose improvident generosity has in many cases 
brought their property into the Encumbered Estates 
Court. Indeed, it was the principal duty of the chief 
to keep up his position by doing the honours of the 
tribe. Debarred from every menial or plebeian office, 
such as gardening or working in the fields, his life 
must have been a very monotonous one, when not 



48 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

engaged in fighting or plundering his neighbours, but 
for the social functions he had to perform, as the 
Brehons relieved him of the judgment of the people. 
Some of these functions were not unpleasant. In the 
Crith Gablach, Ancient Laws of Ireland, we read — 
" There are seven occupations in the ' Cor us ' law of a 
king, viz. — Sunday, for drinking ale, for he is not a 
lawful chief who does not distribute ale every Sunday ; 
Monday, for judgment, for the adjustment of the 
people ; Tuesday, at chess ; Wednesday, seeing grey- 
hounds coursing ; Thursday, at marriage duties ; Fri- 
day, at horse racing ; Saturday, at giving judgments." 
We still find the Irish as keen as ever on the drink- 
ing and dispensing of ale and stronger stuff, which 
might be used with more moderation, and on the 
coursing of greyhounds, horse-racing, and litigation, 
but we regret to find the game of chess is not pursued 
with the same enthusiasm as of old, when it was con- 
sidered part of a gentleman's education. It is not 
often found that Irishmen quarrel over a game of 
chess, except in local tournaments. But if it was a 
woman who fanned the flames of the terrible invasion 
that found its catastrophe on the level sands of Clon- 
tarf, the match was held to it by a game of chess. 
Maelmordha, King of Leinster, of Glen Mama (near 
Dunlavin) fame, was bringing three masts of pine to 
Cenn Coradh, or Kincora, as tribute to Brian, but in 
the effort to get them over the hills Maelmordha's 
tunic burst. When he arrived at the head of the weir 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 49 

he gave it to his sister, Gormfhlath, who was Brian's 
wife at the time, but instead of mending it she threw 
it into the fire, saying that he ought to be ashamed 
of being a vassal of Brian. The chieftain was natur- 
ally roused by his sister's words, and as he stood 
next day in the famous dun at Kildalua, or Kil- 
laloe, he watched Murchadh, the man who had 
found him in a yew tree and dragged him a prisoner to 
his father Brian, playing a game of chess with his 
cousin Conaing. Interested in the contest, Maelmordha 
advised Conaing to make a move which checkmated 
his adversary, who turned savagely upon him saying, 
" It was thou gavest advice to the foreigners when 
they were defeated." " I will give them advice again," 
said the other " and they shall not be defeated." 
*' Have a yew tree ready," cried Murchadh, and Mael- 
mordha fled never to return to Kincora (Wars of the 
Gaedhill and the Gaill). 

It is time now to say a few words about the rights 
and status of the chief among his clansmen. First 
and foremost, he was in virtue of his office entitled to 
a portion of the tribe land and to the largest share in 
the plunder. Of course, the ruling family from which 
the chief was duly elected, although not necessarily 
the eldest son, would have acquired, in addition to its 
portion, large estates of the unoccupied land. For 
while the land, as a general principle, was common 
property, in reality the rights of pasturage possessed 
by the poorer people who could not afford to stock 

E 



50 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

their fields and had to hire cattle from the wealthier 
classes, used to pass into the hands of the rich, "the 
flaith " class, when the borrowers could not pay. And 
in many cases when the debtor had received his 
honour price, which was equivalent to his legal value 
as a free man of the tribe, he became the vassal and 
often the retainer of his chief. In this way the latter 
had become a wealthy potentate, being in a position 
to hire out more cattle, and to keep more servants and 
feini, or followers, than other members of his class. 

The principal foundation of his power in the tribe 
he represented rather than ruled, for he could be de- 
posed if he displeased the community lay in the pos- 
session of this land, upon which he had quartered his 
followers, who were most frequently fugitives from 
other tribes or foreigners who had no political status 
or voice in the Government. These men helped him 
to overawe the truculent members of his tribe and to 
force from them the necessary supplies. While in 
appearance the chief was a popular ruler, the repre- 
sentative of the will of his people, he became in pro- 
cess of time a petty tyrant from living in constant 
dread of assassination. A passage in Crith Gablach 
throws a light on the arrangement of his house, which 
was generally a strongly fortified but clumsy dwelling. 
We learn from it how true it was of the Irish chief 
that 

" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 

Around the king, on either hand, in front and 



ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY.— THE CHIEF. 51 

behind, stood four guards, men without kith and kin, 
who owed their life and freedom to the chief, and 
whose fidelity was thought to be secured by some act 
of crowning mercy, and to be proof against treason. 
But the guards who had been saved from punishment, 
and who had not been taken in battle, lest " they 
might lay hands on the King or slay him [out of 
devotion to their own tribe chief," were not completely 
trusted. They were watched by some prominent 
hostage whose property was a security for his good 
behaviour, while at the north-east of the room were 
posted the unredeemed hostages in chains — whose 
lives would be instantly taken if any treachery became 
apparent. On the right of the King sat his wife, his 
brehon, and his guests, and harpers, while on the other 
side stood his jugglers, flute-players and horn-blowers. 
More guards are stationed at the door, and there is 
also the champion and a '' man of deeds," armed to 
keep order, or, as it is written, " against the confusion 
of the ale-house." But, in spite of this protection, 
the chief was often assassinated even in his own hall 
by a rival, or a member of a hostile tribe. 

The conclusion of our study of the life and man- 
ners of the Irish gentleman of bygone centuries must 
be after this sort, that, while we cannot but admire his 
many virtues and qualities of heart, head, and physique, 
we are thankful that our lot has been cast under a 
quieter and less warlike rule 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 

It is our pleasing duty now to describe the fair ladies 
of Erin, whose bright eyes rained influence upon the 
social gatherings and brave deeds of the sterner sex. 
It were a stupid platitude to say that then, as ever, 
Ireland had much cause to be proud of her lovely rep- 
resentatives. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that the 
English invaders would have never gained a footing 
in the land had they not been smitten by the dark 
eyes of Erin's daughters. If Greece took captive her 
fierce conqueror — the unflinching Roman, by the 
magic of her art and song, it is doubly true that cap- 
tive Ireland subdued the hardy Normans and Flemings 
by the grace and charm of her freeborn damsels. For 
we here notice a difference in the manner in which the 
new-comers approached the Irish women from the 
customary arrogance of invaders. It was in honour- 
able marriage they sought their brides, and it was 
only in honourable marriage that the Irish maidens were 
given by their fathers and brothers to the so-called 
*' Saxons," who had lost both country and character 
through their relations with the Northmen from France. 
Strongbow was induced to invade Ireland by the 
promise of being married to the beautiful Eva, the 
famous Princess of Leinster. Richard de Burgho, the 



THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 53 

MacWilliam Eaghter of Galway, was wedded to the 
attractive Nora, daughter of Murrough O' Madden, of 
Portumna, and the Geraldines of Kildare were inter- 
married with the ladies of the O'Connor sept. No 
wonder that the Irish were always proud of their 
women, whom they allowed to have an equal voice 
with themselves in the controlling of their households, 
and who, instead of being kept in seclusion, like their 
contemporaries the daughters of the English nobles, 
enjoyed a great amount of freedom and power. And, 
the consequence of this was, that the Irishman became 
gallant and courteous, from constant association v/ith 
the ladies of the land. 

At a time when women were sentenced to be pub- 
licly stripped and flogged by judges in England, an 
insult to an Irish woman, not to speak of such an 
indignity to her person, were mortal crimes. This 
fact has been immortalised in Moore's sweet song — 
^' Rich and Rare were the Gems She Wore." 

A warrior queen has been no novelty in our land. 
Scota, Queen of the Milesians, like an ancient Joan of 
Arc or Boadicea, arose to rally her defeated clans- 
men against the Tuatha-de Denans. She led her 
people to battle, and terribly did she light. Though 
she failed to stay the career of the foe, she died and 
gave her name to the land, for our island was called 
Scotia long before it was known as Hibernia. In 
the eleventh century we resumed the name of Eire, 
which sometimes appears as Erin, and more generally 



54 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

as Ireland. Roman writers bear witness to the great 
respect in which the women of the Celts were held. 

The celebrated palace of Emania, known to the 
Irish as Eamhiun (Aven), and, by the addition of the 
Irish article " an," contracted to '' n," converted into 
Navan, owed its foundation to a princess, Machct of the 
golden hair. The circumstances are given in the Book 
of Leinster. It appears that three kings agreed to 
reign in succession for a period of seven years. But 
after the death of the first, Aedhruadh, his daughter 
insisted to reign in his turn, but was opposed by the 
second son, Dihorba, whom she defeated in many 
battles, and, after his death, she married the sole 
survivor, Kimbay. There were still five of Dihorba's 
sons living, but captives. These Macha was advised 
to kill. " Not so," answered she of the golden locks, 
" because it would be the defilement of the righteous- 
ness of a sovereign in me; but they shall be con- 
demned to slavery, and shall raise a rath around me, 
and it shall be the chief city of Ulster for ever." 
" And she marked for them the dun with her brooch 
of gold from her neck," and the place was called 
Eomuin, from eo (a brooch), and muin (the neck). 
This derivation may not be correct, but who can 
deny that it is ingenious ? It was not an infrequent 
occurrence for two rival queens to lead their armies 
against each other. In Kilquane, portion of the 
Lambert estate near Craughwell, is found an ancient 
burial place, where is a stone which is supposed to 



THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 55 

be raised to the memory of Norah, queen of Connaught, 
who had been slain in battle with the queen of 
Munster, and who can forget Queen Maeve of Rath- 
crochan ? 

As we skip the centuries we come to one whose 
name is a household word in Ireland. Who has not 
heard of and admired the romantic Grace O'Malley, 
Granuaile, the great queen of the West? The life 
and fortunes of " Grace of the heroes " have been des- 
cribed in verse by Dr. Panter, who has done 
ample justice to the fair virgin who dominated the 
land by force of character in his epic poem. She 
was, as he says, " notable for her powerful frame, 
her ardent love of rule, and for success in such 
naval and military exploits as the piratical and tribal 
wars in her neighbourhood afforded." It is said 
that the Galway chieftainess visited the Court of 
Elizabeth and interviewed her great rival in England. 
And the Irish Amazon was rebuked by " Gloriana's 
self." On the return voyage the Irish princess is 
wrecked, and her ship is cast upon Ben Edar's 
shore, attracting at once a host of wreckers, who 
were, however, dispersed by Grace's warlike arm. 
Then the hospitality of Howth Castle was sought 
by the shipwrecked mariners, but was flatly refused. 
Some days pass, and the sails of Grace's scattered 
fleet are seen above the horizon, and enter the 
haven. Then the fierce soldiers are landed, and 
proceed to avenge the insult to their queen. The 



56 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

youthful heir of St. Lawrence — who was found on the 
shore — is carried off by the enraged princess, and is 
only returned by Grace on the condition that the gates 
of the castle be opened at midday, and an extra 
plate be laid for any chance guest at the dinner 
hour.* 

Another century of storm and sunshine has passed 
over the grave of the heroic Grace, and Lady Offaly 
is besieged in her castle at Geashill by the insurgents 
of 1 64 1. Henry Dempsey, her own kinsman, sum- 
moned her to surrender, but " with the rebels she 
could make no common cause, and with the defec- 
tion of the Lords of the Pale she could have nc 
sympathy." With smart repartee she defeated the 
arguments, and by vigorous measures the widow of 
sixty years foiled the enemy's attacks on her strong- 
hold. The climax was reached when a piece of can- 
non which had been constructed with great labour 
by the besiegers burst in pieces, and, instead of de- 
molishing the walls of the castle, scattered and dis- 
mayed their own troops. When her son was taken 
prisoner and a threat was sent to his mother that he 
would be instantly beheaded in front of the castle walls 
unless she surrendered, she promptly replied that she 
would have a notable prisoner of hers hurled from the 

ramparts if they dared to touch a hair of her son's head. 

* According to a recent writer, Mr. H. T. Knox, the fame of 
Grace has been greatly exaggerated, and the seizure of the 
heir of Brann-Edair the exploit of Richard O'Cuairsai of 
Tirawley, which is described by Dugald MacFirbis, is wrongly 
attributed to her. 



THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 57 

It is gratifying to learn that this brave lady was at 
last relieved by Philip Sydney from the distressful 
siege she had endured with heroic fortitude and strength 
of will. But it is not alone her high-spirited daughters 
who have shed lustre on Irish annals, for in her saintly 
women the land has been greatly blessed. Of these, 
St. Brigid of Kildare is perhaps the best known. She it 
was who became the foundress of the " Church of the 
Oaks," and the monastery where monks and nuns 
lived under the same roof. And so the Irish princess 
became a Christian saint. Another holy woman was 
St. Ite, the Brigid of Munster, whose name is supposed 
to survive in Killeady. The great work of the 
Christian Evangelists was thus ably seconded by their 
fair and noble sisters. 

The Irish maidens of high degree were taught 
music, embroidery, and weaving, and their education 
received careful attention ; but, above all things, they 
were trained up to be good mothers and devoted wives. 
On many an occasion a clan was saved and a chief- 
tain reformed by the good offices of a woman. It was 
due to the piety of Lady Mary O'Connor, wife of 
Brian, who was involved in the rebellion of " Silken 
Thomas," that the last scion of the house of Kildare, 
the ancestor of the present Duke of Leinster, was 
brought up safely in the wilds of Offaly, where the 
O'Connor's held sway. As wife and mother, the 
Irish women would compare very favourably, 
then as now, with the women of any other country. 



SS TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Although it would seem that marriages might 
be dissolved by personal arrangement, the fact 
that there were no laws for divorce testifies to the com- 
paratively high morality of the Irish wife. It is true 
that the Irish chieftain often formed attachments of 
a loose nature, but such were not countenanced by the 
law of the land. On two occasions a woman was the 
cause of foreign invasion of Ireland. Kormlada, once 
the mistress of Brian Boroihme, and the mother of 
Sigtrygg, king of Dublin, was " so grim against King 
Brian after their parting that she would fain have him 
dead," and she gave Sigtrygg — who had married a 
daughter of Brian — no peace until he summoned his 
allies from Norway to help him to make war on Brian. 
But nothing could shake the loyalty of Brian's daugh- 
ter to her father's cause. For it is recorded in the 
wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill that as King Sig- 
trygg watched the battle from his tower, he exclaimed, 
when he saw Brian's men yield before Sigurd's Ork- 
ney men : " Well do the foreigners reap the field. 
Many a sheaf do they cast from them." But she re- 
plied : '' The result will be seen at the end of the day." 
But when the shadows of evening were stretching 
over the sands of Clontarf the Danes began to retire 
to their ships, and Brian's daughter observed : " It 
seems to me that the foreigners have gained their 
patrimony." " What meanest thou, woman ? " re- 
torted the irate Dane. " Are they not rushing into 
the sea, which is their natural inheritance I " said she. 



THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 59 

" I wonder are they mad, like cattle. If so, they 
tarry not to be milked," and the king smote her on 
the face. 

A century rolls away, and Dermot MaeMurrough, 
the truculent king of Leinster, steals the heart and 
person of Dervorgil, and arrayed all Ireland and most 
of his own people, who had been estranged by his 
cruelty and licentiousness, against himself In his des- 
peration the wretched man went to the English Court 
and offered to hold his kingdom as the subject of the 
king of England if he would help him to recover his 
dominions. At the time the suppliant came to him 
Henry II. had his hands full of foreign affairs, but 
he gave Dermot a letter to bring round the country, 
and the letter succeeded in winning to his side some 
of the Norman barons who resided in Bristol and in 
Wales and were out of favour at Court, a desperate 
and a fearless band. 

The lady who had been the guilty cause of this war, 
after her husband and her lover had been reconciled 
by death, retired from the pleasures of the world to 
the seclusion of the abbey at Mellifont, where she 
spent the remainder of her days in penitence and 
prayer. At Cluain-mic-Nois (Clonmacnois) is an 
ancient building called the " Church of the Nuns." 
It is recorded that in 1 167 " the Church of the Nuns," 
at Cluain-mic-Nois, or the field of the son of Nos, 
was finished by Dearvorgail, daughter of O'Melaghlin. 
*' Such," remarks the historian Gerald of Wales, '' is 



6o TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

the variable and fickle nature of women, by whom all 
the mischief in the world is caused, as may be seen 
in the ruin of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) and 
the destruction of Troy." For, " Like another Helen, 
she fired another Troy." 

There seems to have been a remarkable princess in 
Offaly called Ettagh, who has bequeathed her name 
to that place and her head to Kinnitty (Ettagh's 
head), She, no doubt, was conspicuous for something 
in her life, After her husband had been duly selected 
in a hurling match, or by some other method, the 
marriage of the Irish girl of humble station was cele- 
brated with much festivity. The first ot August was 
a favourite day for weddings in Meath. Then was 
held a great fair at Teltown, between Navan and Kells, 
called Taillten by its founder, Lewy of the long hand, 
one of the Tuatha De Danaan kings, after his foster- 
mother, Taillte. And there is the particular place, 
still called Laganeany, or the hollow of the fair, where 
the marriages were duly celebrated. 

Dancing — which has ever been one of the favourite 
amusements of the people — was then the principal 
recreation for the young people of both sexes on all 
occasions of rejoicing. Under a bush or on a stone 
sat the musician, while around before him flitted the 
merry people, to the rhythmical measures of his in- 
spiriting airs. There is a piper's stone near Knock- 
barron, in Kinnitty parish. 

There is only space now to speak of one custom 



THE FAIR SEX OF ANCIENT ERIN. 6i 

which distinguished the Irish mothers from those of 
other nations. They never bound their children in 
swaddling clothes, but preferred, in this as in most 
things, to follow nature. Giraldus, the Welsh his- 
torian of Ireland, remarks that the Irish nurses never 
raised the baby's nose, pulled his face, or swathed his 
tiny limbs. And he declares that the result justified 
the wisdom of the Irish, for their sons and daughters 
grew up all the more tall and handsome because the 
unnatural custom of binding the babes in swaddling 
clothes was unknown in the land. This testimony of 
the Welshman of a thousand years ago to the fine 
physique and good appearance of the sons and 
daughters of Erin was confirmed in the writer's 
hearing by a German American who had travelled 
far and wide, and who declared he had never laid 
his eyes on a finer body of men than the mem- 
bers of the Royal Irish, or on a more charm- 
ing race of women than the Celtic. Many 
natural causes have, no doubt, helped to bring 
about this good result, among them heredity, climate, 
the survival of the fittest, and the mixture of the best ; 
but not the least is the principle referred to by Giral- 
dus, and which rules the Irish woman's manners and 
regulates her dress and appearance, namely this — that 
'' Nature unadorned 's adorned the most.' ' 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 

From the earliest ages on record Irishmen have always 
had a taste and genius for law. In that domain they 
find scope for their natural eloquence, their love of 
argument, their sharpness and ingenuity. Their oratory 
is more of the forensic style than the judicial, possessing 
rather the quality of sweet or cogent persuasiveness 
than the merit of clear and calm statement. In 
olden days the Irish were just as fond of laying down 
the law. They had a hereditary caste of lawyers called 
Brehons, who were people of very great importance. 
Every prince had his own Brehon, who acted as his 
assessor, his adviser, and his herald. The Brehon 
was always called in when there was a dispute, and 
the occasion was not passed by without notice. For 
then, as now, numbers thronged to hear the debates 
and the decisions. The poet Spenser, in his " Dis- 
coverie of the State of Ireland," describes how he 
saw their meetings on the ancient hills, which they 
attended in crowds armed to the teeth. The black- 
thorn stick of the present day can hardly be called a 
weapon of war, but it is questionable whether, when 
wielded by the muscular sinewy arm of an Irishman, 
it has not proved as effective as the sword or pike of 



THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 63 

the happy days of the olden time. The custom of 
going armed to the seat of judgment was, however, 
no reflection on the authority of the court, for popular 
opinion was on the side of the Brehon, and anyone 
who refused to abide by his decision was visited with 
punishment in the shape of " erics " or fines of so 
many cows, which were distrained by the predeces- 
sors of the modern bailiffs. But if the offender was 
unable to pay, the whole family to which he belonged 
was compelled to settle with the plaintiff. In this case 
the defendant was deprived of his civil status and all 
his privileges as a member of the tribe, especially his 
allotment of ground, which was handed over as part 
of payment to the creditors. The Brehons were 
taught to be scrupulously impartial and just. Moran, 
the King of Ireland, the chief Brehon of the land in 
the first century, is described as wearing a collar of 
gold (lodhan Morain or Moran's Collar), which was 
said to possess the property of choking an unjust 
judge. Mageoghan thus describes the law the Brehons 
administered : " This Fenechus or Brehon lawe is 
nothing but the civil law which the Brehons had to 
themselves in an obscure and unknown language which 
none could understand except those that studied in 
the open schools. Some were judges, and others were 
admitted to plead as barristers, and for their fees, costs 
and all, received the eleventh part of the things in 
demand of the party from whom it was ordered ; the 
loser paid no costes." 



64 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

The Brehon generally gave his decision seated on a 
stone within an ancient rath, around which were 
gathered an eager, excited crowd of listeners, who 
followed every turn of the case with interest, enjoying 
keenly, as Irishmen only can, the wordy strife and the 
battle of arguments. Near Canterbury, in England, 
I believe there is an old fort called Daingean, where 
the ancient Brehons gave judgment. Before the 
Brehon, families brought their quarrels, and townships 
their feuds, and the judgment given, the contending 
parties, after submitting to the decision, withdrew. 
The judge had his fees, which were very high ; it 
being not unusual for him to receive fifteen cows and 
ten days' entertainment for his services. But if an 
appeal was lodged against his sentence, and he was 
convicted of giving a partial decision, he was branded 
on the cheek. 

An Englishman named Campion, who travelled 
through Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's day, has left us 
this interesting account of the Brehons and their 
schools : '' They speak Latin, like a vulgar language, 
learned in their schools of leechcraft and law, whereat 
they begin as children, and hold on sixteen or twent)/ 
years, conning by rote the aphorisms of Hippocrates 
and the Civil Institutes, and a few other parings of 
those two faculties. I have seen them where they 
kept school — ten in some one chamber — grovelling 
upon couches of straw, their books at their noses, 
themselves lying prostrate, and so to chaunt out their 



THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 65 

lessons by piecemeal, being the most part lusty fellows 
of twenty-five years and upwards." 

We can almost imagine we can see those stalwart 
lads of the days of good Queen Bess, working away at 
their law quite oblivious of their sordid surroundings, 
and when school was over rushing out to air their 
brains and brace their muscles in a vigorous game of 
hurling, which has always been popular with Irish 
'' boys " of the peasant class who still wield the coman 
which has given its name to Gortcommon or the 
hurling field, with skill. 

The Brehon code which they studied was spoken of 
by some of the earlier English authorities in terms of 
the greatest contempt, while it was declared by Irish 
writers to be a mine of wisdom and equity. But now 
that we are able to read it in a translation, we find 
that the arguments on both sides were exaggerated ; 
for it was neither a divine code nor a diabolical custom. 
The system and principles of the Brehon law were 
adapted to the tribal organisation of the people, and 
bears much resemblance to the laws of other Aryan 
nations in the same stage of developm.ent. Originally 
it was handed down by word of mouth, but in the 
course of time, the various customs, usages, and 
decisions were collected and codified, and after the 
introduction of Christianity were revised. It may 
interest our readers to be initiated more fully into the 
principles of the law which prevailed in Ireland for 
thousands of years down to the reign of James I. In 

F 



66 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

the Senchus Mor, which claims to have been compiled 
under the auspices of St. Patrick, we have the following 
description of its origin : — " How the judgment of 
true nature which the Holy Ghost had spoken through 
the mouths of the Brehons and just poets of the men 
of Erin, from the first occupation of the island down 
to the reception of the Faith, were exhibited by 
Dubhtach to Patrick, what did not clash with the word 
of God in the written law and in the New Testament, 
and with the consciences of the believers, was confirmed 
in the law of the Brehons by Patrick and by the 
ecclesiastics and the chieftains of Erin. For the law 
of nature had been quite right except the Faith and 
its obligations, and the harmony of the Church and 
the people." 

The fundamental ideas of the code were two — « 
arbitration and compensation. The source of all 
judicial authority in the tribe life lay in the interfer- 
ence of the public in the interests of peace. A crime 
was looked upon as a personal wrong, not as a public 
offence. There was, in fact, no state to be offended^ 
no state authority to be upheld. The community merely 
intervened in the matter as arbitrators. Consequently, 
the legal system pointed not to sentence but settle- 
ment. The object of the arbitrators was to bring 
.about a compromise, and consequently corporal and 
capital punishment were out of the question. The 
compensation was made according to a scale of 
damages. Murder and outrage were atoned for by 



THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 67 

payment to the family of the injured. It was the 
function of the Brehon to assess the amount of 
damages in the action. This was a work of great 
difficulty, as every circumstance in each particular 
case had to be taken into account — the rank and 
motives of the defendant, the rank and conduct of 
the plaintiff, the nature of the injury and the place 
where it was inflicted requiring consideration. In the 
course of time, as the cases and judgments multiplied, 
the study of the law and its precedents became a very 
absorbing and complicated matter. But, as we have 
seen, the post of Brehon was a lucrative one. There 
was, therefore, a great encouragement to men of 
ability to enter the profession, which eventually be- 
came hereditary or confined to certain families. 

We shall now say something about one particular 
family of Brehons who were greatly distinguished in 
the annals of Ireland — the MacEgans. This family 
had a good and pious record. The chief Brehons of 
Ireland, especially those of Munster and Connaught 
sprang from its branches. It was especially renowned 
for learning and hospitality. Galway was the 
headquarters of this clan Diarmada, which was wide- 
spread. It had possessions in the neighbourhood of 
Lorrha. At Coillte Ruadha, now Redwood, the 
MacEgans, Dionysius, and Darius had a castle. And 
at Killaleigh, the modern Sopwell, the residence of 
Captain the Hon. Cosby Trench, the MacEgans had 
a large castle, which is maintained in splendid 



68 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

preservation. Cromwell, who dispossessed MacEgan, 
gave his ancestral halls to the famous Colonel Sadleir, 
and accommodated the evicted family with a residence 
on the lake. One of the national bards has eulogised 
the MacEgans in the following verses : — 

" Precedence for his valour and fame 
Be given to MacEgan the noble ; 
Record him for the activity of his warriors, 
Of his prosperity and great renown. 
The Clan Diarrnada, north and south, 
To place them in my poem is a duty." 

The Four Masters give several interesting notices 
of this remarkable family. In 1 309 a MacEgan, who 
rejoiced in the name of GioUa-na-neev, or servant of 
the saints, and held the post of Chief Brehon of 
Ireland, and was considered to be the most learned 
judge of his time, was killed. Ninety years afterwards 
died Boetius MacEgan, of Ormond, learned in the 
laws and in music, and eminent for hospitality. 
Thirty-one years passed away, and another MacEgan 
died. This was Fergal, Chief Brehon of North 
Connaught, " a man learned in the laws and sciences, 
and who kept a house of hospitality for all persons who 
came to his place, and died after a well-spent life." 
And after thirteen years died Hugh MacEgan, a man 
who added eloquence to all the hereditary gifts of 
knowledge, of law, hospitality, and goodness. We 
can with confidence point those who speak of the 
wildness and barbarity of the ancient Irish to this 
record of a family which would be a credit to any 



THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE, 69 

nation, and which was an honour to those by whom it 
was honoured. 

The Castle of Annameadle, near Toomavara, was 
the chief seat of the family in Ormond. Ballymacegan 
was called after it, and Ballyoughter was their burial 
place. Lislea (Greyfort), and Lisleabeg (Little Grey- 
fort), close to Borrisokane, now in the possession of 
the Saunders family, also belonged to the MacEgans. 
Such was a race of Brehons who administered the law, 
and who carried their decisions without any executive 
save that of moral force. To their justice and equity, 
foreigners, like Spenser, bore ungrudging testimony. 
Of their love for their law. Sir John Davies (1610) in 
his letter to Robert, Earl of Salisbury, gives evidence, 
wherein he describes the first assizes that was held in 
Fermanagh among the ruins of the Abbey in the 
island of Lough Erne, when the venerable Brehon of 
the McGuires, who had possessed the land from time 
immemorial, drew from his breast, with trembling 
hands, the ancient roll, with which he refused to part, 
until the Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, gave his word 
to return it. It was at this time that the Brehon law 
was suspended in Ireland, and the English judges, 
who had been hitherto confined to the Pale, were now 
sent through all the country. 

There was one peculiar custom which deserves 
mention in connection with the Brehon. It was the 
system of levying kincogues, or '' kindred moneys." 
In the days of the Tories, or the dispossessed 



70 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

landlords, who had turned brigands and cattle-lifters, 
and supported themselves in their mountain retreats on 
the cows and sheep of the English occupiers of their 
lands, this custom of Kincogues was made law. And 
it worked in this way. When a band of outlaws 
swooped down from the hills upon a man's herd and 
carried them off, compensation was made to him by 
fines levied on the members of the guilty family who 
were living under English protection. But as it was 
often impossible to raise a great sum of money from 
a few poor people, all the Irish in the barony in which 
the outrage was committed were held liable for the 
damages, which were extended over other baronies 
through which the outlaw had been allowed to escape. 
Although Spenser objected strongly to this law, there 
was a great deal of common sense in its principle, for 
it acted as a preventive of sympathy with crime, and, 
therefore, of crime. The same principle to a certain 
extent operates now-a-days. For the county has to 
pay for any malicious outrage that is committed by 
unknown persons. But as the majority of the rate- 
payers are respectable, law-abiding folk, and the 
criminal class is generally exempt from taxes of all 
kinds, the innocent have often to suffer for the guilty. 
Still the interests of justice are, on the whole, furthered 
by this procedure. The arrangement, however, of 
costs under the Brehon system, by which the loser in 
a case paid no costs, is one we would not gladly see 
introduced again ; for it would tend to prevent poor 



THE ANCIENT IRISH JUDGE. 71 

people who had a just claim or a righteous cause from 
seeking the assistance of the law. 

In their schools the Brehons calculated the amount 
of damages to be levied for a cat stealing milk, or for 
bees stinging a stranger, with mathematical precision. 
They recorded the provisions that regulated the 
boundaries of land, the preservation of roads, woods, 
water-courses, bees, dress, and hospitality. But in 
those palmy days there was no game law. The 
sportsmen had it all their own way. At a time when 
in England a man dared not hawk or hunt on his own 
estate, a right which was only wrested from the 
absurdly wicked King John by Magna Charta, the 
Irish never knew the meaning of the Forest Law or 
Game Law, and would not allow it to be imposed upon 
them. On this truly sportsmanlike characteristic of 
the Irish chieftain and his men, Sir John Davies made 
this grim comment- When lamenting that the 
English had not succeeded in making the Irish give 
up their sport, he says : ''If they had, it might have 
been the means of conquest ; for they might have 
turned the Irish out of the wild places where they 
dwelt in freedom, and might have given them up to 
the beasts of the chase, less hurtful and less wild than 
they." It would, however, have taken the Norman 
Kings all their time to preserve the game in Ireland, 
and to reduce the Irish to such a degree of servility 
that the very birds would appear to know that they 
were under the royal protection, as they did in 



72 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

England. There is an interesting account given by- 
one of John's mercenaries of the way in which the 
birds in England would not fly from the traveller, but 
merely move on and continue to feed. One might 
safely wager that a few Irish gossoons would soon have 
taught them to keep at a respectable distance. 

But though the Brehons had not to adjudicate in 
cases of infringement of the game laws, they had 
sometimes very curious quarrels to settle. We shall 
conclude with an account of one historic and 
important judgment given by a Brehon. It appears 
that a well-known Irish saint, in the seclusion of a 
monastery, ventured to make a copy of a Psalter 
belonging to his host, who was so enraged by an 
action that was truly laudable in itself, but which was 
considered in that unenlightened age as a breach of 
privilege, that he brought the matter before Diarmaid 
King of Meath, one of the principal Brehons of the 
land, who gave the extraordinary decision that the 
copy should be returned to the owner of the book ; 
"For," he argued, "as to every cow belongs her own 
calf, so to every book belongs its own copy." But 
Columba would not return the book, and the conse- 
quence was a battle, in which many Meath men were 
slain. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE IRISH BARD. 

Of the Irish bard very little is known ; but whatever 
history has to record of him gives us an appetite for 
more information concerning him and his profession. 
Still there are vestiges of an elaborate and powerful 
organisation, there are traces of men of thought behind 
the mountains of time. Allured by these fitful lights* 
stray beams in the darkness of the past, we take up 
our quest, as the knights of old went forth in their 
search for the Holy Grail, trusting that we may find 
something tangible — something which may be a 
basis for theory, or a starting-point for further research, 
or reform in University life. 

It would appear that both the word bard and the 
office it indicates are of Celtic origin. It is a Welsh 
word. A Roman poet called the national poets of the 
Celtic race bards. These, the national singers of 
Gaul, were silenced by the Roman arms ; but in 
Britain, Wales, and Ireland the voice of the bard kept 
alive the ancient poetry and traditions of the people. 
The Celts were a distinct, a chosen people, though we 
do not seek to identify them with the Jews, as some 
would do, who look for the tables of the law on Tara's 
Hill, and in nothing more did they show their 



74 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

distinction, in nothing more did they justify Heaven's 
selection than in their noble patronage of the sacred 
art of song. There was not merely one poet laureate, a 
single singer supported by the bounty of his country- 
men, for every bard was a stipendiary. Every bard 
had special privileges and rights. No tax-gatherer 
ever impounded his cattle. Not even the Prince dare 
speak of reducing his rents. 

A rather distinguished-looking personage in those 
days, he would appear a comical specimen of humanity 
if met in the streets of modern Dublin. By special 
permission he was allowed to array his body in the five 
colours — white, blue, green, black, and red (to which 
an additional colour was in time added) — which, laid 
on in stripes, made him a variegated, if not venerated 
object. 

He allowed his beard to grow long and full, as 
indeed did all the ancient Irish, It will be re- 
membered that that silly and churlish Prince John 
amused himself and his Norman companions by 
plucking the beards of the worthy chieftains as they 
were taking the oath of allegiance to him. Over his 
locks, which were twisted into a straight, stiff coil 
behind his neck, like a horse's tail, called a glibbs, he 
wore a hat in shape like an antiquated football-cap, or 
a fisherman's knitted headpiece. This covering was 
called a barrad, which, doubtless, because patronised 
by the bards, came to be regarded as a sacred 
appendage, for we occasionally find angels adorned 



THE IRISH BARD. 75 

with it. Those who have visited the Cemetery of St. 
Peter's, Drogheda, know to what I refer. Although 
the barrad was anything but a handsome decoration, 
after it had gone out of fashion some people who 
favoured the antique sought to reintroduce it. Walker, 
in his memoirs, tells us of one Hugh Dungan, a 
valiant yeoman of Kilkenny, who proudly donned the 
barrad and paraded the streets, followed in his wake 
by a crowd of admiring and by no means silent boys. 
For clothes the bard wore a cota or tunic of plaided 
stuff or dyed linen. This was like an ornamented 
jersey, with short sleeves. The famous Shane O'Neill 
and his kerns paid a visit to Queen Elizabeth all 
arrayed in these saffron-coloured cotas, and the 
London populace were amazed at such an exhibition 
of muscle and hardihood. Around the waist a girdle 
was worn like a belt, and over his broad shoulders fell 
a cochal, a long cloak with a large collar or hood, 
which was often used as a protection for the head. 
This garment was fastened at the neck by a brooch 
or dagger. The bodkin was often used for this 
purpose, being a very convenient article, serving 
several purposes, and chiefly used for fastening. In 
battle the Irishman used to twist this cloak several 
times round his left arm as a defence for his person, 
while his right hand wielded the spear or the sword. 
The bard's distinctive mantle — his college gown — 
was called a suadh. There was another upper garment 
used, doubtless, as a sort of full dress. It was called 



76 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

a canabhas or fillead, and consisted of a large loose 
garment falling to the feet. The saints who are 
depicted on St. Boyne's cross at Monasterboice are 
arrayed in similar vestments, which are by some 
identified with the alb and chasuble. The length of it 
was occasionally an impediment, for in the well-known 
description of the death of Cuchullin, we read that 
'' he entangled his foot in his mantle and was covered 
with confusion." 

In the olden days, when everything was written in 
verse, the bard was an important personage. He 
combined several offices in one. Drayton cleverly 
sums them up in the lines — 

" Musician, herald, bard, thrice may'st thou be 

renowned, 
And with three several wreaths immortally be crowned." 

We may compare Orpheus, Amphion, Linus, 
and Musseus of the early Greeks with Amergin of 
Erin, who is described in the verse — 

" Primus Amerginus, genu candidus, author lerne, 
Historicus, judex, lege poeta, sophus.'' 

A regular order like the Homeridae, their office was 
to celebrate the victories of the nation and the prowess 
of its warriors. A person of distinction in a poetical 
age — historians tell us that the beginnings of literature 
are always poetical — he became restricted in influence 
in the days of prose, for he who filled the offices of 
historian, legislator, judge, poet, philosopher, and 
herald, came in after days to be represented by a mere 



THE IRISH BARD. 77 

singer of national or topical songs, a common player 
on the harp. It was the same in other countries, and 
notably in Greece. But this is a digression. 

The bard of the palmy days was an educated 
gentleman. His course occupied twelve of the best 
years of his life. That time he spent in one of the 
colleges, of which there were several, most of them 
destined like that of Inis-owen (Inis-Eogain) which 
Columkille turned into the monastic school of Derry, 
and those of Clogher, Armagh, and Lismore, 
to give way to Christian institutions, which were 
to be established on their ruins. There he was 
taught by the Druids to sing, and to set to music 
their laws, their system of physic, and their other 
sciences. There he learnt the rules of his art, and the 
codes of his profession, which were many and 
intricate. As the vocation of bard was strictly 
hereditary, only the son of a bard could be admitted 
into these seminaries. This rule had one good effect, 
for though it excluded brilliant geniuses, or infant 
prodigies, whose appearance cannot always be 
accounted for by heredity, it generally secured men of 
good memories and appearance, and proved in the 
main to be a fair working principle. 

After going through his course and standing his 
examination in the three different sections of law, 
history, and music, the young aspirant to bardic 
honours was given his degree. The test was a severe 
one, for there were no honorary degrees conferred in 



jS TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

those days. The successful candidate wrote down his 
name with the degree Ollamh, which is the same as 
Doctor before it, and assumed the classical hat, the 
barrad which we have just described. He could then 
become a Filea or poet, a Breitheamhain (Brehon) or 
administrator of the law, or a Seanacha or historian. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BARDIC ORDER. 

The Bardic Order of Ancient Erin was thus a dis- 
tinguished caste, and an elaborate system. Embracing 
music, poetry, history, and law, the Bardic Order per- 
mitted its votaries to select the subjects for which 
they felt themselves more especially adapted. The boy 
might devote himself to the study of music, such as 
it was, and poetry, or to the reading of the laws of 
the land, or to learning the history of the different 
septs. The lad who selected music and poetry be- 
came in time the Bard par excellence ; the student 
who embraced the law aspired to the position of 
Brehon ; while he who entered for history came out a 
full-blown Seanacha. Generally speaking, however, the 
Bard was supposed to make himself acquainted with 
all these subjects. Amergin, the first of the bards, is 
described in the Latin epigram by O'Flaherty as " the 
fair-kneed author of lerne, historian and judge and 
poet, skilled in law." To the Bard we shall now give 
our attention. The history of these ancient singers 
and chroniclers of our country is wrapt in profound 
mystery. Fiction has here, however, boldly usurped 
the place of fact. It is stated on some authority that 
the name Tuatha-de-Danaan is a word compounded 



8o TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

of three different words, which mean lord, priest, and 
bard respectively. But it was not, perhaps, till the 
Milesian era that the bards were introduced into 
Erin. 

It is not generally known that, as Rome had her 
Romulus and Remus, and England her Hengist and 
Horsa, so Erin had an equally wonderful pair of 
brothers, who managed between them to conquer the 
land and to crush for ever the power of the Tuatha- 
de~Danaans, and who did all they could to encourage 
the arts among their subjects. They were Heber and 
Heremon. To Heremon's lot fell " the Black North,'' 
and to Heber the sunny South of Ireland. Both 
brothers, it is said, had been attended by Cir-mac Cis, 
a poet, and Onna Ceamfinn, a harper. As the 
brothers went their several ways, one to the north 
and the other to the south, they agreed to cast lots for 
the poet and the musician, and the result was that 
Heremon took the poet and Heber got the musician. 
Their brother Amergin, who has already been men- 
tioned, assumed the rank of Archdruid and the rank 
of Ard-Filea, or chief bard, both offices being united 
in his person. In after times the functions were spe- 
cialised, although it would seem that originally the 
office of Druid and bard was one and the same. 

We have a remarkable fragment of a poem which 
is supposed to have been written by him to commemo- 
rate the second landing of the Milesians in Ireland, 
and a truly wonderful description of the fishes leaping 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 8i 

out of the stormy waters to seek safety on the shore 
— a marvellous stretch of imagination. 

The chief business of the Filidhe, or bards, was to 
turn the tenets of religion into verse, to compose war 
songs and marriage odes. At '• the feast of the hill " 
he amused the people, like the bard in the Odyssey, 
with tales of other days. The Irish poetry was a 
by no means simple study. In the work, " Uiraiceacht 
na Neagir," or rules for the poet, over one hundred 
different species of poetry are described. And in their 
colleges the course of study was long and severe. 
But we do not find that the graceful muses confined 
their influence to the schools of the poets. For we 
read that the daughter of Moran was celebrated for 
her musical powers as other ladies, notably Eimker, 
the wife of CuchuUin, were for their poetical composi- 
tions. 

As Augustus Csesar was the great patron of poetry 
in early Rome, so was Ollamh Fodhla the gracious pro- 
tector and guardian angel under whose fostering care 
poetry flourished in Erin. It is said that he founded 
a college at Teamor called Mur-olla-van, where 
young men of good birth and intellect were instructed 
in verse and song, metre and music. An air of 
sanctity was given to the class by the King, who 
arranged that the estates of the bards should not be 
confiscated, that their homes should be asylums for 
fugitives, and that their stock should be free from 
depredation. A melancholy duty devolved upon the 

G 



82 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

bards when anything untoward happened to their tribe. 
When a prince or chieftain was slain in battle, the 
'' stones of his fame " were raised avidst the voices 
of the bards. After the heathen priests, the Druids, 
had performed their religious rites, whatever they may 
have been, the caoine or dirge, which was specially 
composed for the occasion by the Filea of the dead 
and set to music by his Oirsidigh, was sung by a 
rhapsodist. The latter rendered the solo passages, 
while the symphonic parts were taken by a chorus of 
bards and Oirsidigh divided into two parts like a 
cathedral choir. Travelling through Ireland we pass 
many a small dolmen — two stones supporting a cap 
stone — which tradition tells us is the resting place 
of some great chief. As we stand by that enduring 
memorial of ancient prowess, we cannot but fill in the 
landscape — which is always beautiful — with the ani- 
mated and picturesque figures of the national bards 
chanting the funeral song their chief had composed, 
in which all the virtues and beauties and deeds of the 
deceased were feelingly set forth. In after days the 
office of wailing the dead was allotted to female 
musicians — the predecessors of the later keeners. 
We may compare the Scotch coronachs and the 
lamentation of David over Saul. Although the bard 
became, in after times, a simple harpist, in the fulness 
of his power he occupied a more exalted position than 
that. Marching at the head of the army, robed in 
long, flowing vestments, a collar of gold about his neck. 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 83 

and surrounded with the Oirsidigh or instrumental 
musicians, he was a dignified and an imposing figure. 
Exempted from the duty of actual fighting, he watched 
from a commanding eminence the fortunes of the 
battle and the actions of his chief. 

When war had been declared, the bard was con- 
sulted like an oracle as to the probable issue. And 
here — we speak without profanity — we notice how 
the bards affected to play a similar part in the history 
of their tribes to that which the sacred singers— the 
prophets of Israel — played among the chosen people, 
for the bards were regarded as prophets. They were 
generally supposed to predict success, and no doubt 
they liked to encourage this opinion. We do not read 
that they were ever found out to be false prophets 
although it is only reasonable to infer from the uni- 
versal preference of the Irish people to say what is 
agreeable, that they would much rather prophesy 
smooth things than offend the feelings of their faction. 
There was, however, a general understanding that the 
bard had the privilege, in virtue of his high office, to 
advise the king and reprove him for his faults. As 
an old bard quaintly said, '' How arduous then 
the Fileas talk ! for it behoveth him to mark each 
backsliding and not to overlook even a tendency to 
evil." 

The prophet of victory in war, the censor of morals 
in the court, the bard was, indeed, an important item in 
the royal establishment. 



84 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Irish bards, we read, were formerly in great request, 
Wales often sending over for an Irish bard to come 
and teach their sons the arts of the Muse. There 
seems to have been — as the present writer has already 
pointed out — much interchange of good will between 
Wales and Ireland long before, what should be called, 
the Welsh invasion, for Fitzstephens, Barry, Fitz- 
gerald, and others who preceded Strongbow, were all 
Welshmen, descendants of Nesta, a fascinating Welsh 
princess. And Ireland was really opened by these 
warriors for the English, who followed. It is not im- 
probable that, as the Welsh joined in a recent Celtic 
demonstration in Dublin, the ancient Irish sent re- 
presentatives to the Eisteddfod, or the national fes- 
tival of the ancient Britons, beyond the Channel. 

But it was at the triennial Feis at the palace of 
Teamore or Tara — instituted by the great OUamh 
Fodhla, King of Ireland — that the Irish bard played 
a conspicuous part. 

In the centre of the great hall — the site of which is 
hardly recognisable to-day among the scanty debris 
of the past — the throne of the Ard-Righ, the chief 
king, was placed facing west. In front of him at a 
small distance sat the King of Leinster, enthroned 
on a lower throne. On the left of him was seated the 
King of Munster, on his right the King of Ulster, and 
behind him the King of Connaught ; then came long 
rows of seats. To the Druids and the Fileadhe, or 
bards; were allotted the first of these, and in the 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 85 

second circle, as it were, sat the Marshal, the Seana- 
chaide, the Oirsidigh, the standard-bearers, and officers 
of State. (Keating's History of Ireland and Walker's 
Memoir of the Irish Bards). 

Behind these the nobility and knights were accom- 
modated, and in the la-st rows sat the Beatachs and re- 
presentatives of towns and cities. The first two days 
were spent in social visits and hospitality by the 
chiefs and princes and in feasting and revelry by their 
attendants. But the third day was the feast of Sam- 
huin or the Moon, in the temple of Tiachta. Then 
the opening of the assembly was announced by sacred 
odes recited by the Ard-Filidhe, with musical 
accompaniments by the Oirsidigh. And after the 
Druids had finished their rites and mysteries, the fire 
of Samhuin was lighted up and the pagan deities were 
invoked to bless the councils of the chiefs. 

The next three days were spent in hospitality and 
feasting. And when the time appointed for the coun- 
cil drew near, the great circular trumpet was sounded 
and the esquires presented themselves and gave in 
the shields and insignia of their masters to the Grand 
Marshal, who suspended them according to their 
rank. A second shrill blast summoned the target 
bearers of the general officers, and a third brought 
out the princes, nobility and officers, who at once took 
their places decently and in order. After refresh- 
ments had been served out and partaken of, the seana- 
chaide, who acted as registrars, came forward and laid 



86 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

their reports and records before the august assemblage. 
When these reports were passed, they were turned 
into verse and inscribed in the Register or Psalter of 
Tara. 

The conference consisted of several sessions. Be- 
tween the sessions the bards of the different princes 
were ordered to collect the records of their districts, 
and their families and lay them before the States. 
Truly a very business-like and well-contrived work 
which well deserved the encomium of Swift — " As bar- 
barous and ignorant as we were in former centuries, 
there was more effectual care taken by our ancestors 
to preserve the memory of times and persons than we 
find in this age of learning and politeness, as we are 
pleased to call it." 

What the special business of the Feis was we can 
only guess. But we would not be far wrong if we 
considered that schemes for the improvement of the 
conditions of life, the laws of the land, and national 
education took up a large portion of the programme. 
For we find that so early as 574 A.D. the King of 
Ireland presided over a council of chiefs and nobles 
which was convened to arrange a course of studies for 
the different schools. At that time Ireland was the 
great nursing-mother of les belles lettres for the 
greater portion of Europe. We can thus draw a 
parallel between the sixth century and the twentieth, 
for, although we cannot say we monopolise the learn- 
ing of Europe, we may say without any conceit that 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 87 

the ordinary native of Ireland, not to ascend any 
higher, is behind the inhabitants of the same rank of 
no other country in the world in mental capacity. 
While in the matter of education everyone knows that 
it is the burning subject of the day, every political 
platform being weighed down with schemes for its re- 
form, and the career of modern Parliaments being 
strewn with the fragments of failures to settle this 
question. But we are no nearer the settlement of this 
question than ever we were. The truth is that it is 
absurd and impossible to run the education of one 
generation in the grooves which regulated the educa- 
tion of the preceding age. Every age has its own 
requirements, its own problems. Our people, gene- 
rally speaking, require an education that will prepare 
them for a commercial and industrial life. They can 
no longer live on the land. Ireland must regard her- 
self as the nursery of other nations. Her sons and 
her daughters must be equipped at home with the 
knowledge which will serve them abroad. They 
should learn to speak and write French and German, 
and especially the latter, as it is rapidly distancing the 
French in range and usefulness. They should be 
taught the different trades that our age has created. 
Above all things, they should be taught good manners, 
deportment, and the necessity of cultivating that al- 
mighty art — tact. With a good trade, a fair know- 
ledge of another modern language besides their own, 
and their manly optimism and naturally agreeable 



88 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

manner, Irishmen and Irishwomen may go anywhere 
and never starve. 

And as for application to study, where can we find 
a better object-lesson in this art than the description 
which Campion gave of the young aspirants for the 
rank of Brehon ? "I have seen them," he says, 
*' grovelling upon couches of straw, their books at 
their noses, themselves lying prostrate and chaunting 
out their lessons by piecemeal." This is an in- 
teresting picture of the law students of the Tudor 
period, and speaks well for the application of those 
who, oblivious of their sordid surroundings, were all 
intent upon the goal of their ambition. 

To return to the bards, we find them high in honour, 
enjoying a precedence over the nobles and knights 
and gentry at the great Feis. We do not wonder 
that their hearts were lifted up and that the fates were 
provoked by their pride. They had become a power- 
ful order. But they abused their position to amass 
wealth and possessions. It had been found expedient 
to reduce their number to two hundred. But this 
salutary provision was not sufificient to check the 
swelling tide of their ambition. And matters at last 
reached a climax, and the bards were banished. 

It came to pass in this way. In the reign of Achay 
the Third, several of the OUaimh of Munster and 
Leinster, in their capacity as Brehons or legislative 
bards, invaded private property to such an extent 
that they actually had to fly to the hills of Scotland 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 89 

for safety. Embezzlement had evidently been made 
on a great scale, and a vast conspiracy to defraud must 
have been discovered before they were compelled to 
adopt such a course. From this unhappy predicament 
they were rescued by the timely intervention of Con- 
covar MacNessa, King of Ulster, who became their 
mediator, and obtained permission for them to return 
home. But most of the returned fugitives remained 
at the Court of the King, who devised new improve- 
ments in the constitution of the order. To help him 
in this work he invited Forchern Neid and Atharne 
of Ben Edair — the modern Howth — to his Court at 
Eamania, where they assisted in the revision of the 
laws, and introduced new gradations into the bardic 
system, and published the tables of the law — the 
Taibhle Fidea, or wood-tables of the learned. 

But such regulations were not effectual to settle the 
difficulty. The bards were in trouble again, and this 
time it was the great Irish missionary to Scotland, 
St. Columba, who came back to Ireland in order to 
save the bards from expulsion at the council of 
Drumceatt (575). They had become arrogant 
and purse-proud. Their insolence knew no bounds. 
They stigmatised a King who killed a bard in 
battle as "foul-head." The five colours were not 
sufficient for them ; they demanded the golden buckle 
and pen of royalty. They became also corrupt in 
their habits, dishonest and sensual — a very burden to 
the State, a very curse to the nation that bore them. 



90 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Very different had been their influence in the olden 
days, when they often brought about peace by their 
wise intervention between combatants. What time 
Fin and Gall were fighting near Almhain, we are told 
that the bards acted like the Sabine women in the 
early days of Rome, rushing between the ranks of the 
contending warriors and charming them, like the 
fabled Orpheus, into peace. 

It was doubtless owing to this work of arbitration 
that the bards were not swept away, as the Druids 
were, by the advent of Christianity to these shores, 
but continued to remain on, a prosperous and useful 
community, until they were finally silenced by the 
Statute of Kilkenny. For we read that Donchad 
O'Daly, Abbot of Boyle, excelled all other bards of 
his age in the hymnal species of poetry. From the 
ranks of these pagan scribes the Christian clergy were 
frequently drawn. 

Reference has been made in a preceding chapter to 
the Brehons, or legislative bards, who gave laws in a 
monotonous, sing-song voice from a stone within an 
ancient rath, from which place they also delivered judg- 
ment in all cases that were brought to them for trial, 
acting rather as arbitrators than as judges, and ar- 
ranging settlements rather than delivering sentences. 
These administrators of the law were considered above 
corruption. It is said that Moran, King of Ireland, 
and the Chief Brehon in the land, wore a gold collar 
— the lodhan Morain — which was said to have the 



THE BARDIC ORDER. 91 

property of choking an unjust judge. A Brehon con- 
victed of partiality was liable to be branded on the 
cheek. The principal work of the Brehons was to 
assess the amount of damages to be paid in each case. 
With mathematical precision they calculated what 
damages should be paid when the cat stole the milk 
or the bees stung a stranger. The eleventh part of 
the things in demand were given as fees to the 
Brehons, the loser, by a beautiful arrangement which, 
alas, no longer holds, paying no costs. 

With regard to the third class of the bards — the Seana- 
chaide — who were the antiquarians and chroniclers 
of their day, very little is known. Suffice it to say 
that each prince and chief kept a Seanacha, who 
had charge of the titles and family- trees of 
the establishment. The Irish had a natural taste for 
history and pedigrees. Dugald MacFirbis murdered 
at Dunflin, in Sligo (1670), was the last of the line of 
the celebrated antiquarians who produced among othei 
works the Book of Lecan, at Castle Forbes. It is also 
reported that an Ollamh-Re-Seancha was appointed 
to chronicle the events and preserve the traditions of 
each province. And thus it would appear that the 
Ulster King-at-Arms is descended from a race of 
Irish bards and is the modern representative of the 
ancient Seanachaide — the chroniclers in the courts of 
the Irish Kings. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 

THE FUSION OF THE NATIONS. 

The Irish inhabitants at the time of Strongbow's 
invasion were a high-spirited, free-born race. They 
were a nation of warriors whose minds were as mighty 
as their bodies were big. " The Irish," wrote 
Spenser, '' are one of the most ancient nations that I 
know of in this world, and come of as mighty a race 
as the v/orld ever brought forth.' They were, as we 
have seen, an offshoot of that great Celtic people 
that spread over all Europe, that broke the mighty 
power of the Roman legions, that carried destruction 
and devastation up to the walls of Athens, that swept 
like a great wave, a tidal wave, over the fair volup- 
tuous cities of the rich, well-watered plains of Grecian 
Asia, striking terror into the fluttering hearts of the 
maidens of Miletus, whose song has been preserved 
in the Greek Anthology. 

" Then let us hence, Miletus, dear, 

Sweet native land, farewell, 
The insulting wrongs of lawless Gaels 

We fear whilst here we dwell." 

But at last the furious irresistible charge of the Celtic 
tribes was stayed by Antiochus, who earned the name 
of saviour of his country for this great service. But 



THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 93 

already the luxury of the sweet and happy life in 
the bright valleys and plains of the East had softened 
the warrior spirits and enervated the muscular frames 
of a race that is never so well as when at work. Into 
Italy again they poured, now under their own chiefs, 
and under great war-loving generals like Pyrrhus and 
Hannibal, whose military eye had already been 
attracted by the warlike qualities of a soldiery that has 
never known defeat when properly handled. The 
Gauls, like their Irish cousins, never knew what fear 
was, '' They march openly to their end," said Strabo. 
Polybius tells us of the young chiefs of the Gesatae, 
who in the ardour for the battle, stripped themselves 
naked, leaving on their golden collars on their necks 
and their armlets on their arms to distinguish them 
in the meUe. While St. Leger, the Lord Deputy 
described the Irish kernes as coming " to the bicker 
but bare naked." Disdaining as cowardly the Norman 
custom of wearing defensive armour they rushed head- 
long on their mailed foes, with only their light shields 
on their arm, and small helmets on their heads, and 
often perished but never were conquered, for their 
spirits were never crushed like those of the poor 
Britons, who had been driven by the murderous 
Saxon and land-seeking Norman across the Severn 
and behind the Cambrian hills. There, indeed, they 
breathed freely ; but what of those who remained on 
the other side in thraldom to the cruel thanes and 
barons ? '^ Who dare compare the English ? " says 



94 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Giraldus Cambrensis, " the most degraded of all races 
under heaven, with the Welsh. In their own country 
they are the serfs, the veriest slaves of the Normans, 
and in ours who have we but Englishmen for herdsmen, 
shepherds, and cobblers, and for the performance of 
the lowest offices ? " We are thankful to say that in 
after years the English prevailed over the French 
invaders, and are now the solid backbone of the great 
Anglo-Saxon race. But in the days of Strongbow 
the English were a crushed and beaten race, and that 
the Irish never were. One reason why the latter 
succeeded in maintaining their freedom was their love 
for the pastoral and village life. They hated towns, 
they despised the townspeople, they loathed trade. 
They led a healthy, active existence in the open air, 
on their mountain heath or their woodland pastures. 
Such a life always tends to develop the manliest 
qualities, vigour of body and strength of mind. In 
their conflicts with their enemies, their skirmishes 
with one another, their continuous warfare with the 
prowling wolf and terrible bear they acquired habits 
of fortitude and self-reliance, which the life within a 
city's gates or behind a fortified wall have never en- 
couraged, because the sense of security is fatal to the 
spirit of independence. It was not the Celtic genius, 
therefore, that founded the towns the Normans found 
when they came to Ireland, but it was the commer- 
cial spirit of the Danes, and the Ostmen of the North, 
strangers that had swooped like harpies upon the 



THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 95 

fair havens of the Green Isle, and endeavoured to 
settle themselves as colonists in the land. Perhaps 
these towns had been built long before by merchants 
from the South of Europe ; for Tacitus says the parts 
of Ireland were better known to merchants than those 
of England. 

Nor had the Irish any taste for commerce or trade. 
Giraldus, the Welsh historian of this period, tells us 
that these towns on the coasts were inhabited by a 
mixed multitude of Danes and French, who kept the 
Irish well supplied with groceries and wines. 

A people of pastoral habits, they lived on the land 
they loved, having it common to all of one tribe. The 
chief and the tanist, his elected successor, alone had 
lands appropriated to them, while the bards, 
physicians, and Brehons also had special lots set apart 
for their use. But the great mass of the people had 
no settled or durable property in land. They followed 
their cattle from their summer pastures in the 
mountains to their winter feeding grounds, enjoying a 
free, unfettered existence, paying no fixed rent, and 
never living in dread of eviction in their lightly built 
huts. It is true that there were dwellings of a more 
permanent nature around their tillage lands, which 
were annually meted out among the different families 
according to their stock and requirements, but it was 
a fixed principle of the Celtic spirit not to allow 
property to any great extent to accumulate in the 
hands of any individual. The land belonged to the 



90 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

tribe, and to the chief, as representative of the tribe, a 
certain amount was allotted to enable him to keep up 
his state. This, however, he was not permitted to 
leave to his eldest son, but was compelled to divide 
among all his sons at his death. This custom of gavel- 
kind was most opposed to the feudal system which 
the Normans sought to introduce into the country, 
but never succeeded in extending beyond the Pale, for 
it tended to create a race of small landlords or owners 
of property upon whom the State had no claim, 
because they held their lands originally as a gift of 
their own tribe. No wonder, then, that it was 
condemned and made treasonable by many a Norman 
edict. 

The villages and village sports, however, owed their 
origin to the larger settlements around the tillage 
lands. In nothing have the Irish shown so much 
their spirit of conservatism as in their adherence to 
their ancient games. Arthur Young, in 1776, 
described the game of hurling, which is to-day as much 
in vogue as ever — " There is a very ancient custom 
here for a number of country gossips among the 
poor people to fix upon some young woman that 
ought, as they think, to be married. They also agree 
upon a young fellow as. a proper husband for her. 
This determined, they send to the fair one's cabin to 
inform her that on the Sunday following she is to be 
horsed — that is, to be carried in triumph on men's 
backs. She must then provide whiskey and cider for 



THE CELT AND THE NORMAN, gy 

a treat, as all will pay her a visit after Mass for a 
hurling match. As soon as she is horsed the hurling 
begins, on which a young fellow appointed for her 
husband has the eyes of all the company fixed on him ; 
if he comes off conqueror he is certainly married to the 
girl ; but, if another is victor, he as certainly loses her, 
for she is the prize of the victor." 

We find much earlier, and not less interesting, 
notices of this game which has ceased to be associated 
with matrimonial affairs, although it still attracts all the 
marriageable girls of the peasant class who cannot 
but admire the strength and agility displayed before 
their fair eyes by the rival claimants for their applause. 
For we read among the statutes of Kilkenny, which 
were made in 1367, that "it is ordained and 
established that the English do not henceforth use 
the plays which men call hurlings with great sticks 
and a ball upon the ground, and other plays called 
cortings ; but that they do apply themselves to draw 
the bow and throw lances, and other gentlemanlike 
games appertaining to arms, whereby the Irish 
enemies may be better checked." 

Such were some of the pastimes that induced many 
of the Norman settlers to throw in their lot with the 
native Irish; and so helped to break down the barriers 
of nationality and creed which the English Govern- 
ment were always trying to build up by fresh legisla- 
tion. But to no purpose, for the English who settled 
in Ireland always became more Irish than themselves. 



H 



98 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Once outside the hated boundaries of the English 
Pale, where the feudal system and all its burdensome 
exactions and annoying officials ruled supreme, the 
naturalised Irishman breathed freely. He no longer 
was oppressed with the nightmare of confiscations and 
the dread of forfeitures. He threw off his English 
dress and language, and discarded the Norman air of 
superiority. One illustrious instance of this adoption 
of Irish customs is found in the family of the Earl of 
Clanricarde, one of whose sons styled himself William 
M'Eighter and the other William M'Oughter. Of them 
Sir Henry Sidney wrote that " they had stolen across 
the Shannon and there cast away their English habit 
and apparel, and put on their wonted Irish weede." 
These who are described in the State papers as " tall 
men who boast themselves to be of the King's blood" 
spoke and dressed and acted like Irishmen. 

Very thankful were these Burkes that the broad 
Shannon flowed and many a friendly tribe lived 
between them and the feudal system under which the 
De Lacys were beggared, and the Geralds, Fitzgeralds 
and Butlers groaned in vain- Petition after petition 
was sent without success by the Prelates, Earls, 
Barons, and Commons of the land in Ireland com- 
plaining of the cruelty and injustice of the King's 
officers. Accordingly, some of the more powerful 
nobles, and those who were farthest from Dublin 
Castle, took the matter into their own hands and 
ceased to pay feudal dues, and to ensure that no 



THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. 99 

escheator or sheriff should trouble them they entered 
into an understanding with the native Irish, especially 
those who lived near Dublin, such as the Byrnes, the 
Tooles, and Kavanaghs, and the O'Moores, to prevent 
the judges on circuit from crossing the bridge of 
Leighlin, which was the only passage across the 
Barrow. Thus secured from the interference and 
supervision of the Norman law, the naturalised Irish 
threw themselves heart and soul into the ways of the 
country. They married Irish lasses with raven hair 
and lightsome eyes, in spite of the cruellest enact- 
ments and the most unjust prohibitions ; they spoke 
like Irishmen; they gave out their children to be 
fostered by their Irish relations ; they appeared in the 
saffron shirt, brogues, and linen coat affected by the 
Irish ; they hunted and hurled and wrestled and sang 
with their Irish dependents and friends, and adminis- 
tered a mixture of English and Irish law called March 
law. But for this a time of reckoning was drawing 
nigh. By the Parliament held at Kilkenny under the 
Duke of Clarence, who had come over especially to 
evict the Burkes from their possessions, to which 
generous purpose he found the Irish friends of these 
noblemen the greatest obstacle, it was declared hign 
treason to marry an Irishwoman, and the punishment 
ordained for it was to be half hanged and disembowelled 
alive (1367). 

But acts of legislation and confiscation failed to 
effect the desired separation, for to live among the 



100 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Irish is to love them and their customs. The Irish 

peasantry followed the descendants of the old Norman 

invaders, the Butlers and Gerald ines and Burkes, to 

battle with as much confidence as if they were led by 

one of the O'Connors or O'Moores or O'Kennedys. 

Side by side the Norman and the Celt thrived. 

Together in sport and work and battle they learned to 

respect and admire each other's qualities of mind and 

body. The Celt gave animation and received 

discipline. The Norman brought law and skill and 

tasted freedom and strength. In their marriages with 

one another the union of hearts was formed, and in 

their children and their children's children the rival 

nations blended their powers and virtues to issue in a 

greater nation than either — the Anglo-Celtic race. 

At the present day there are but few of the good 

old county families that are not as proud to claim 

descent from some wild Irish chief as they are to 

assert connection with some proud Norman baron. 

And as it was among the generous peasantry of Erin 

that the descendants of the Norman Kings, the 

oppressed slaves of feudalism and militarism, found a 

free and natural life, so now the descendants of these 

Normans are working together with one end in view — 

the good of their tenantry and the prosperity of their 

peasantry. For 

" 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
A breath can make them as a breath has made. 



THE CELT AND THE NORMAN. loi 

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed can never be supphed." 

The fear which Goldsmith — an Irishman who loved 
his native land — expressed in these memorable lines, 
looms more largely than ever before our minds as we 
look down the census sheets, and read the appalling 
statistics under the head of emigration. Surely those 
who glory in their Irish blood, and those who are no 
less proud of their Norman names, should unite to 
devise some means to stop this leakage — not that we 
grudge to give the world our best sons and daughters to 
leaven and raise the life of other peoples, but because 
we apprehend that the supply may one day cease 
abruptly, and the Irish nation in its Irish home shall 
demand replenishment, and shall fail to get as good as 
it has given. 



CHAPTER XL 

CELTIC MONUMENTS, 
THE CROMLECH. 

In this and the following chapter something will be 
said of the remains of Celtic art and architecture that 
are to be found in our island. We shall begin with 
the Cromlech, also known under the name Dolmen or 
Daul-maen, table stone and menhir, (maen-hir) long 
stone, with which, however, it must not be identified, 
reserving our remarks on the Celtic tombs of New 
Grange and the Round Towers, which, though not 
Celtic in origin, were raised by Irish hands. 

The Cromlech is one of those interesting remains 
of the Stone Age that affords the student of the 
history of the nations a subject for research and 
speculation. These relics, with others of the same 
principle — temples, dome-roofed caverns, subterranean 
passages, huge blocks standing in a ring, are found 
all over Europe, and not a few can be seen in 
Ireland. The readers of this booklet are doubtless 
more familiar with them under the names of Druids' 
altars or giants' graves, " A Cromlech," says Wake- 
man, "when perfect, consists of three or more stones, 
unhewn, and generally so placed as to form a small 
enclosure. Over these a larger stone is laid, the 



CELTIC MONUMENTS. 103 

whole forming a kind of rude chamber. The posi- 
tion of the table or covering stone is generally- 
sloping; but its degree of inclination does not 
appear to have been regulated by any design." The 
name cromlech (crom leac, sloping stone) is not 
thought to be Irish, for if it had been manufactured 
on the soil, we should most surely have it preserved 
in the names of the localities where they are found. 
The ancient Irish often styled memorials of this kind 
Labby (leaba), which means grave. In O'Brien's 
dictionary we have the note — "Leaba is the name 
of several places in Ireland, which are by the 
common people called Labhaha-na-veana, the monu- 
ments of the Fenii or old Irish champions." There 
is a Labasheeda in Clare, which means Sheedy's 
grave. In some parts the cromlechs are called by 
an Irish term signifying the bed of Diarmaid and 
Grainne,"^ from the legend that Diarmaid ran 
away with Grainne, the espoused wife of the 
celebrated Finn Mac Cumhail (Finn-ma-Cool), and 
for one year and a day baffled all Finn's efforts 
to discover them. During his period of flight 
Diarmaid erected every night a different leaba to 
shelter Grainne from the wind and rain. This, of 
course, is legend. But in Cork we have a townland 
called Labbadermody, Diarmaid's bed. 

An even less poetical name than Labby is Griddle. 
A cromlech on the top of a hill was often called a 

* Leaba Dhiarmada-agas-Grainne. 



104 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

griddle. In Downpatrick we have a hill called 
Sleeve-na-griddle — the mountain of the griddle. 
Finn-Ma-Cool, the injured and enraged lover, had his 
griddle in a bog near Easky, in Sligo. 

A very fine cromlech is in the Howth demesne. It 
is generally called Aileen's grave. The covering stone 
is a huge block, and is almost on the ground. At the 
base of a rocky hill, where stones of a great size are to 
be seen in numbers, the weight of this stone does not 
strike us so much as other cromlechs, which are found 
in a neighbourhood completely devoid of similar 
stones, and which are generally explained as a 
deposit of the ice age. But in Antrim there is a much 
more elaborate monument. It is called Carngranny, 
or Carn-Greine (Granny's Grave), Granny being a 
corruption of Grian, which means the sun, which 
appears in the name Tomgraney, and which has 
not anything to do with the word grandmother. The 
monument to this Granny, this sunny-faced woman, 
" consists," as Bishop Reeves tells us, '' of ten large 
slabs raised on side supporters, like a series of cromlechs, 
forming steps, commencing with the lowest at the 
north-east, and ascending gradually for the length of 
forty feet towards the south-west." Such are some of 
the great stone monuments now generally known as 
dolmens and cromlechs. We have seen that there is 
something more substantial than legend connected 
with them. Who, then, were their builders ? Here 
we may be guided by the fact that no weapon or 



CELTIC MONUMENTS, 105 

implement of any kind of metal has been found in the 
vicinity of any of these remains. Underneath these 
dolmens human bones have been found in many cases, 
and in several places urns have been dug up. The 
extension of the principle of the dolmen may be seen 
in the stone chambers and passages of New Grange 
and Dowth. It is not, however, from Ireland, but 
from Jersey, that the finest specimen of the cromlech 
hails. Twenty-two yards in circumference, composed 
of fifty massive stones, averaging seven feet in height, 
six in breadth, and four in thickness, and situated on 
the Town Hill, where Fort Regent now stands, it 
presented an imposing appearance. It was divided 
into four perfect cells, had the ruins of a fifth, and was 
approached by a passage through which one had to 
creep on hands and feet. This way of entrance was 
very like that which leads into the fine chamber of 
New Grange, being fifteen feet long and four feet four 
inches high, and running east and west. This was, 
indeed, a colossal cromlech, a miniature Stonehenge. 
But it has, unfortunately, been removed from the 
island. There is still a fine specimen in Jersey, near 
Mount Orgeuil Castle. Situated on a rising knoll, it 
is approached by what seems to have originally been a 
covered passage, of which the great side-stones alone 
remain. The roofing stone, under which a person 
may stand erect, is several hundred tons in weight 
being fifteen feet in length, ten and a half in breadth, 
and three and a half in thickness. Supported on five 



io6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

great blocks, it forms a fairly-sized chamber, and may 
have originally been a place of some form of worship 
or religious function. There are other structures of a 
similar kind in the Channel Isles. The archceologist, 
Dr. Lukis, explored a magnificent cromlech in 
Guernsey, near I'Ancresse Bay. Like the Irish 
monument of New Grange, it stands within a some- 
what broken and indistinct circle of smaller stones. It 
is roofed by five gigantic capstones, and has another 
chamber near its eastern entrance. It is now called 
Le Temple des Druides — the Druids' Temple. When 
Dr. Lukis first found it, it was choked with sand, 
but when clearing had been effected, and the sandy 
layer had been removed, the explorer came upon the 
bones of animals, oxen and hogs, embedded in a 
stratum of sand. Below this he came upon the bones 
of human beings, burnt and unburnt, and underneath 
all a miniature cromlech, a small capstone on stone 
props, under which lay a mass of bones and imple- 
ments, arrowheads, grinding troughs and mullers, 
hammers and quoits, all of stone. But not one of these 
was of iron or of any other kind of metal. These 
megalithic fabrics would not, therefore, have been 
erected by Celts, who used weapons and implements 
of bronze and iron— a formidable array of which are 
now on view in the National Museum, Kildare Place. 
Moreover, the Celts were not builders in stone. They 
lived in houses of wood and shining clay, with which, 
Tacitus tells us, they produced marvellously artistic 



CELTIC MONUMENTS. 107 

effects. Before the Celts came to Ireland the 
Tuatha-de-Danaans and Firbolgs had lived here. Of 
these last it is possible that some remains are still to 
be found. In the caves of the Arran Isles are found 
skulls and bones belonging to a long-headed, small- 
boned race of men, somewhat akin in appearance to 
the Basque inhabitants of the Pyrenees. The Firbolgs, 
being driven to the extreme west by the better armed 
and more powerful Aryan invaders, made their last 
stand in County Clare and the Isles of Arran, where 
some of their descendants may doubtless be seen to this 
very day. The fort of Angus, a massive circular fort on 
the West Coast, consisting of great stones laid one 
upon the other, the heavier being at the bottom and 
the lighter at the top of the wall, bears the name of 
the last Iberian King, while the name of" Scots " was 
borne by the followers of Queen Scotia. This is all 
we can say of the builders of the cromlechs. It is very 
possible that this conjecture may be completely 
wrong. The cromlechs, at all events, belong to a 
pre-historic age — an age of which history is silent, and 
of which geology alone can discover traces. 

What was the original purpose of these monuments f 
Here again we must confess ignorance. But it is 
apparent that they may have served one or other of 
two purposes. They may have either been con- 
structed as rude altars by barbarian predecessors in 
honour of the god they ignorantly worshipped or as 
enduring monuments of the fame of their strong men 



io8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

and their beautiful women. For ancient urns and 
calcined bones have been found beneath. Passing 
from one idea to the other, the natives of Erin call 
them now '* Druids' Altars," and anon ''■ Giants* 
Graves." Perhaps both ideas may be harmonised 
when we remember that the gods of most heathen 
nations were but deified men and women. 

And by what method of leverage were the great cap 
stones raised into their present position ? This is 
another interesting question to which we can give no 
definite answer. But conjectures are not wanting. 

It has been suggested by the King of Denmark 
that these massive blocks were worked up over an 
artificial inclined plane of earthwork. To other 
antiquarians it has appeared more probable that the 
smaller stones found in the vicinity of certain of these 
cromlechs were utilised in this process of lifting. 
While it has been recently conjectured by Mr. W, 
Borlase in The Dolmens of Ireland that the trunks of 
the trees which abounded in this even and well- 
wooded island were employed as leverage, and that 
the small stones found by the sides of the Dolmens 
had been originally inserted by the workmen under 
the great block to secure a purchase for their efforts. 
It is very likely that the original workmen would laugh 
at these notions, and would consider them far-fetched 
and poetical explanations of their simple but endur- 
ing achievements. The great Pyramids of Egypt still 
remain to bear witness to the s^reat efforts and colossal 



CELTIC MONUMENTS. 109 

undertakings of a long-buried civilisation. These 
marvellous structures, whose raised stone— Clogh- 
togla * — was a mystery to later races, are a silent but 
everlasting monument of the brawn and muscle, the 
affection and adoration of a by-gone race of Irishmen. 

Some idea of the number of these monuments in 
Ireland may be gained from a study of Mr. Borlase's 
work referred to, in which there is a description of 780 
dolmens, 50 chambered tumuli, and 6S other monu- 
ments, of a nondescript character. It is remarkable 
that while there are fewer dolmens in Leinster, there 
being only 71, as compared with 234 in Munster, 248 
in Connaught, and 227 in Ulster ; it has 40 chambered 
tumuli to 10 in all the rest of Ireland. 

These prehistoric monuments are not, however, 
confined to Ireland. They are also to be found in 
Brittany, Cornwall, Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, 
Africa, and Austria, and in the Anamalai Hills, South 
of Madras. 

According to Mr. Borlase the dolmen and cham- 
bered tumulus are allied in structure and in purpose ; 
and he makes no distinction between the cromlech 
and the " Giant's Grave." The cromlech he considers 
a giant's grave manque. The stones of a " Giant's 
Grave " are large and heavy at the west end, but 
gradually dwindle in size and weight towards the east. 
The cromlech, in Mr. Borlase's opinion, could be the 
heavy west end of a giant's grave, which would not 
* Cloch-togbhala. 



no TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

be so easily removed as the east. Every dolmen too 
he thinks, was originally covered with a quantity of 
small stones to make the walls of the crypt imper- 
vious both to animals and elements. 



CHAPTER XII. 

IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 

Starting from Dublin by the early train, we arrive in 
Drogheda by noon, and our cycles carry us in two 
hours to Slane. As we travel along the south of the 
Boyne, the banks of which are densely wooded and 
picturesque, we are passing over the historic battle- 
ground of William of Orange, and at Oldbridge, 
crossing the bridge by which the Boyne Obelisk stands 
sentinel, we come in full view of King William's Glen, 
and leaving the front entrance of Townley Hall to the 
right, we follow a hilly but straight road into Slane. 
Having arrived here, and put up at the small hotel, and 
satisfied the inner man, we make our arrangements 
for our tour. There are both Christian and pagan 
antiquities to be seen, the contrast between them 
making us reflect seriously upon the great difference 
of the religions under which they sprang up. 
Following the order of time we shall first visit the 
pagan remains. These are principally cemeteries of 
the dead, and are known by the names of New 
Grange, Dowth, and Knowth. The first two of these 
have been opened, and are accessible to visitors, but 
the last is not. New Grange can be approached 
from the rear by following the river and crossing 



112 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

in a punt, or by the front if one takes the road. 
It is only two miles distant from the town. Having 
arrived at the gate of the field, we see before us a 
gently rising hillock of no great height, dotted here 
and there with small shrubs and trees, and at the base 
surrounded by massive blocks of stone placed at 
certain intervals. Approaching near, we discover an 
entrance apparently leading to a long, dark passage, 
walled and roofed by solid slabs of unhewn stone. At 
our feet, covering the mouth of this sepulchral way, lies 
a huge rock, marked with curious trumpet-shaped 
patterns. We light our candles and advance boldly, 
but not feeling at all safe, we creep along on hands 
and knees, pausing now and then to glance at the 
curious wedge-formed marks in the stone slabs, one of 
these exactly representing a Maltese cross, and at last, 
to our relief, are able to stand bold upright in a lofty, 
dome-shaped chamber, some twenty-seven feet high. 
As we examine the walls more closely in the bright 
flash of the magnesium wire, we observe quaint and 
beautiful patterns on many of the huge blocks, running 
round the corners where no human instrument or 
hand could work, and which, therefore, must have been 
carved with the Druid symbols before the stones 
were placed in their present position. Thus we arrive 
at the secret of the tumulus. The passage and the 
chamber were first built of huge blocks carted up from 
the bed of the Boyne, and, having been marked, were 
placed in their present position, and the whole made 



IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 113 

more secure by a covering of earth and sods. There 
are other passages converging on the chamber from 
other entrances, all of which have now disappeared, 
but a stone slab marked with the curious spiral forms 
we have spoken of above, lying at the extreme north 
of the mound, may indicate the position of another, 
"which has not been opened. We would not recommend 
anyone to try to follow up one of these passages, as 
they are not at all safe. In the apartment itself there 
are three recesses formed by pairs of huge stones 
leaning towards each other. Opposite two of these 
recesses lie two great but shallow basins of solid stone, 
a larger one being placed in the very centre of the 
floor. These basins were evidently used in some 
religious function by the Druids — presumably for 
burning the dead or sacrificing the living. As we 
look at them they do not seem so gruesome after 
all, but if the stones could cry out what terrible tales 
they would give of the deeds that were done in this 
cemetery of the kings ! The story goes that Cormac 
Mac Art ordered his followers not to place his body here 
in Brug-na-Boyne, but in Ross-na-ree (the wood of the 
kings). However, in spite of his last injunction, his men 
thrice essayed to carry the corpse across the river, but 
the floods prevented them from achieving their purpose, 
so they were unwillingly compelled to lay it in the wood 
on the south of the river, where curiously enougli 
some remains of a Celtic burial place have been recently 
discovered. As we return to the tov/n from our visit 



114 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

to one of the best preserved Celtic monuments, we 
pass over the great stone bridge which was considered 
a strong post for military operations by King William, 
and beneath which the river, rushing down the weir 
with great force, cuts a foaming course through the 
many arches. Standing on the bridge we have a good 
view of the Castle of Slane, the old keep of the 
Flemings, situated on a noble site commanding the 
surrounding country ; and we are not far from the 
footsteps of St. Ere, the follower of St. Patrick, 
who raised, it is said, at his Master's command, 
a hermitage by the river's brink, where he died in 
514. Here is to-day an ancient hermitage with a 
rough-built cell and cave hewn out beneath, and a 
stone- roofed chapel, now ivy-mantled and discrowned 
by time and treason. A thousand years after the 
death of Bishop Ere, Sir Christopher Fleming placed 
two friars in the hermitage, which is now in ruins. 
A little way from the entrance lies a long stone of 
coffin shape, carved with twelve figures (apostles) on 
two sides, and at the end with three figures, Christ 
between two thieves, the one praying, the other 
scoffing at His words, a living sermon wrought in 
silent masonry. We are told the country-folk come 
in numbers on the 15th August to worship here, 
after hanging out their rags by the ancient well in 
the demesne. The story is that the doom of Tara 
was pronounced by the abbot of this hermitage 
who, finding that the king had not respected the 



IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS, 115 

sanctuary, but had carried away a fugitive who had 
sought refuge there from his vengeance, proceeded in 
robes of office and in wrath to the gates of the great 
settlement^ and cursed it from its very foundation. 
From that day Tara became a tradition of the past, 
if we can believe the old chroniclers. 

We have yet to see the famous College of Slane, 
where, it is said, Prince Dagobert, of France, was 
educated and lived for twenty years, 653-673, before 
he was recalled to his native land and kingdom. The 
way of approach is by a long steep hill, on the crest 
of which we find a group of interesting remains, con- 
sisting of a ruined abbey and a dismantled church, 
both of very ancient structure. On the outer wall of 
the abbey is a stone slab supposed to have engraved 
upon it the arms of Dagobert, A lion is distinctly 
visible on the shield. The ruins are very extensive, 
and well repay an inspection. From the tower of 
the church, in which there is a beautifully carved 
window a little to one side of the arched doorway 
beneath it — a proof of antiquity — one has a view of 
Drogheda and Tara. These buildings commemorate 
a most important episode in the history of the nation 
and the life of the national saint, namely, the lighting 
of the Easter fires which kindled so great a conflagra- 
tion in the land that it quite extinguished all the fires 
of the pagan religion, as the Druids prophesied it 
would. Whether it be true or not that the Saint 
here encountered and defeated the Druids by feats 



ii6 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

of magic which left them spellbound, is no concern of 
ours to say or to believe. It is most probable, how- 
ever, that Patrick made his way from this hill to the 
court of the king, Laoghaire (Leary, son of Niall of 
the Nine Hostages) at Tara, where he was well re- 
ceived, and made many converts, young Ere being 
among them. 

The buildings we have described show the rough 
usage of Danish spoilers and the cruel stains of war. 
Speaking of the Danes, we are reminded of the great 
round towers that were built to protect the religious 
community from their inroads by enabling it to have 
timely notice of their arrival and safe refuge from their 
attack, A magnificent specimen, within easy distance 
of Slane Hill, at Monasterboice, the ancient monas- 
tery of Boetius, which has been in ruins since in/, 
when its last abbot died, raises its massive form amid 
a regular cluster of antiquities, two ancient and mar- 
vellously sculptured Irish crosses, and the ruined 
gables and walls of two chapels. This tower is no 
feet in height, and 15 in diameter, and is divided into 
5 stories. The entrance being some distance from the 
ground, commanding the entrance to the church, and 
evidently approached by a ladder, which was drawn 
up when the last stragglers of the little band had been 
called in from the fields just in time to save their 
precious manuscripts and other treasures, and to 
escape the fire and sword of the invaders. Then the 
iron -studded door was closed, and through the 



IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 117 

portholes, arrows and missiles were hurled against the 
marauders, who presently withdrew after pilfering and 
destroying everything they could lay their hands on. 

The origin of the bell tower, the cloig teach, accord- 
ing to the eminent Dr. Petrie, was Christian not Pagan. 
The bell tolled the hours of service and sounded the 
alarm ; while the towers, lit up vv^ith tapers at night, 
served the country-folk as beacons in the dense and 
dangerous woodso On the round tower of Roscrea 
there are curious figures of an antique ship, an axe 
as well as a cross carved on the arch of the second 
window, which have led certain people to believe in 
the Pagan origin of these towers. But two of these 
signs are Christian, and the use of the tower was 
distinctly Christian. The idea of the round tower 
seems to have been brought from France to Ireland. 
The French suffered as much as we did from the sea- 
robbers of the North, and in order to protect their 
churches in the valleys of the Loire and Seine they 
raised these towers and gave the hint to Irish ecclesi- 
astics like Malachy, who were ever passing backwards 
and forwards between Ireland and the Continent. In 
Ravenna similar towers of cylindrical form and 
conical roof are to be seen. They are the earliest 
specimens of the Campanile. Eastern influence is 
evident in the French towers. And this is to be 
accounted for by the fact that a regular influx of 
artists and sculptors passed from the East into France 
after the severe iconoclastic measures of the Emperor 



ii8 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

Leo. Charlemagne was glad to employ these 
strangers, and to them the cylindrical form of these 
structures is to be attributed. And so we have reason 
for asserting that they were not fire-temples or 
Druidical monuments or anchorite towers, but that 
they served as belfries and places of security for the 
religious community who dwelt under their shadow. 

Ascending this tower by the ladders, which lead 
from one storey to another, we gain a splendid view 
of the surrounding country, the hills of Slane and 
Tara being distinctly visible on one side, and 
Drogheda and the sea beyond on the other. 

The two crosses we have mentioned are very 
remarkable. In the first place, they are like all old 
crosses, Celtic in form and association. The taller of 
them, apparently of one single block of stone, is 
eighteen feet high. It is called St. Boyne's Cross, 
probably after some inmate of the monastery. Some 
almost obliterated letters at the base of the other are 
supposed to stand for the name, Muredach, an abbot 
who died here in 923 while figures in high relief all down 
the shaft represent Scriptural subjects. This the smaller 
cross is the handsomer of the two. It is divided on its 
four sides into three panels, Scriptural subjects being 
represented by grotesque figures with fierce 
moustachios in high relief on the front panels, the 
Ascension (I) being represented in the centre of the 
circle. Plaster casts of both, we believe, are to be 
seen in the Science and Art Museum, in Kildare street. 



IRISH TOMBS AND TOWERS. 119 

Concerning the Irish cross, much has been said and 
written. There is a great variety and a great number 
of crosses in Ireland. The word Cross itself, as Dr 
Joyce has pointed out, is the name of about thirty 
townlands, and it forms the first syllable of about 1 50 
others. There is Crosserlough (Cros-air-loch), the 
cross on the lake ; Crossmolina (Cros-ui-Mhaeilfhina), 
O'Mulleeny's cross ; Crossgar, short cross ; Crusheen, 
little cross; Crossfarnoge, the cross of the 
alder tree, &c. At first these crosses were simple, 
and without ornament; but gradually they became 
highly ornamented and elaborated. They are 
connected not only with religious establishments, but 
were also raised, as Dr. Reeves has pointed out, 
wherever any providential visitation took place. 
Among varieties of the cross might be mentioned the 
inscribed slab marked with a cross, the perforated 
stone marked with a cross ; the pillar stone marked 
with a cross ; the earlier form of the Celtic cross, and 
the high cross with Celtic circle called cross na 
screaptya, or cross of the Scriptures. There are only five 
of these high crosses in Scotland and eight in England, 
but yet it has been pointed out that there are 300 
localities in Scotland, 250 in England, and only 64 in 
Ireland where crosses are found. The Irish crosses 
are not only remarkable for the delicate beauty of 
their ornamentation, but also for the variety and 
boldness of the subjects depicted on their panels. 
They thus combined utility with beauty. For while 



120 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

their graceful forms impressed the cultured, the 
ignohile vulgus stood awestruck before their represen- 
tations of Scripture subjects and scenes in the lower 
world, the art-teaching of the Celtic Church. 

The solitary romance connected with these build- 
ings is that the supposed founder, Buite or Boetius 
(Boice) McBronaigh, '^ the man of the fair band with 
the glories of clean deeds/' had travelled far and v/ide? 
but returned to Ireland that " the place of his birth 
might be the place of his resurrection." He is said 
to have died on the same day that Columba was born. 

The next place of interest which awaits us is Tara, 
better known, perhaps, through Moore's ballad than 
for its own departed glories. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

tara's halls. 

Some twelve miles from Slane, among a succession of 
gently-rising hillocks, is Teamhair, or Tara, meaning 
a ridge commanding a viewo Such is the name of the 
locality, which has ever been associated with the 
glories and victories of the Irish race. There the 
King of Ireland held his court, and the princes and 
potentates, bards and druids of Erin, assembled 
every third year, since the days of Ollamh Fodhla, to 
deliberate, and discuss matters of government, educa- 
tion, and religion. The stronghold of Pagan darkness, 
^ts circular forts were destined to become the centre of 
Christian light, what time the eagle eye of Saint 
Patrick recognised its importance as the key of 
Ireland. From the smooth sward all traces of human 
habitation have been completely obliterated. But 
though the sods are silent as the grave, imagination 
might summon around us the "chiefs and ladies 
bright," and awake the echoes of the harp in Tara's 
halls. To re-animate the buried past, and fill it with 
moving figures, is at best an experiment. But many 
would like to form some conception of how that 
memorable day was spent that ended with the 
approach of the saint. For, although it has been 



122 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

proved to demonstration that that part of Ireland 
which stood in close contact with the south-west of 
Britain was Christian previous to his coming, the tra- 
dition of Patrick has not yet been conclusively over- 
thrown.* 

In the early morn of the day two fires were kindled 
by the Druids, with great incantations, for the Irish 
were probably celebrating their Mayday, or Belltaine, 
festival at this time. In the halls of Tara there would 
be profuse hospitality for all comers, and the country 
round would present an interesting spectacle, enlivened 
by the moving figures of men and women, horsemen 
and charioteers, in gaily-coloured robes. Athletic 
games, pastimes, and even marriages would be cele- 
brated on this occasion, which could not, however, 
coincide with Easter. 

It is not too far-fetched an idea, and it is one that 
ancient records confirm, that horse-racing and chariot- 
driving were the principal amusements of this warlike 
people. The following might be a sketch of the 
day's proceedings :— - 

There is first a horse race, for which the youth of 
different tribes are entered. Off they start at the 
word, urging their steeds with their heavy lashes of 
plaited thongs and their long, sharp spurs, grasping 
their iron bridles in their hands.- Bareback they 
ride. And now they are turning the course for the 

*See, however, on this subject Heinrich Zimmer's Celtic Church 
in Britain and Ireland. 



TARA'S HALLS. 123 

last time, and as they pass the pavilion where the 
King is seated the cheering rends the air,, They have 
surrounded the winner, and are leading his horse back 
to his tent in triumph. To-night his name will be 
praised by the national bard. Now the young men 
are preparing for the foot race^ They are removing 
their cloak pins, and taking off their brilliantly- 
coloured capes. And now they unwind the broad 
scarf from their waist, the heavy kilt is thrown 
aside, and in their light silk tunics and hosen they 
bound lightly into the course, their great, muscular 
arms and throats, tattooed with quaint designs, exposed 
to the admiring crowd. The word is given, and the 
competitors bound forth at full speed, nov/ clearing 
an iron bar, breast high, with the greatest ease, and 
now gliding as rapidly beneath a two-foot rail. The 
race is keenly competed, and as keenly watched. It 
is over, and the victor is carried off by his friends in 
triumph. Now the great bell-mouthed trumpets blare, 
and the people crowd to the course to see the chariot 
race, for this is the great event of the day. Caesar 
gives a glowing description of the agility and strength 
of the British charioteers who fought against the 
Roman legions four hundred years before. It is, 
therefore, no stretch of imagination to suppose that 
these Irish charioteers, who had often encountered 
the Roman legions, were as skilful as their kinsmen in 
Britain, whose land they v/ere wont to harry, when 
Cormac MacArt and Dathi were the terror of the 



124 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

Continent of Europe. Now the chariots of bronze are 
driven upon the course one after another, and as each 
warrior appears, his name is loudly taken up by his 
friends and admirers, until the whole place rings again. 
The signal is given, and the teams rush madly forward 
from the post. The course narrows, and one of the 
drivers slackens, but the rest drive madly on. There 
is only room for one, but three dash into the gorge 
almost abreast. There is but a yard dividing the first 
from the second, while the third, lashing his steeds, 
forces the pace, and forging ahead, dashes his axle 
against the linch-pin of the preceding car, which falls 
out. Then the wheel rolls off, and the chariot is 
turned over on the ground, but the driver, nimbly 
bounding over his horses' heads, escapes destruction. 
Meanwhile, the audacious third gets clear, and pass- 
ing the first, drives home amid the cheers and plaudits 
of the spectators. His name, too, will be sung by the 
national bard to-night among other heroes of the long- 
poled, heavily-driven chariots of bronze. Now the 
evening is drawing to a close, and the people return 
to their homes. The king and his guests once more 
seek the great hall, where the banquet is prepared. 
The chief Brehon is the Master of Ceremonies. The 
king and queen and the greater nobles are conducted 
within the principal fort to a raised dais, where they 
take their places at their table. And then the other 
chieftains and guests, who had stood up when the 
royalties were announced, were accommodated with 



TARA'S HALLS. 125 

seats at the long table that ran down the centre of 
the halL The feast begins, and sounds of merriment 
are heard. When this repast is over, the dishes are 
removed, and great bronze flagons of mead and beer 
are placed upon the tables. At a signal from 
the king, a henchman quickly rises, and leaves the 
hall, and presently returns, leading by the hand a 
gentle youth, who carries a harp upon his arm. This 
was the minstrel. Seating himself at the feet of the 
king, who smiled kindly upon him, he began to sing in a 
light tenor voice. Accompanying himself on his harp 
as he composed, he deftly weaves into his lay the names 
of the sturdy youths who have proved victorious in the 
games. Anon his music takes a loftier course, as he 
sings of the Spirit divine, who whispers in the air and 
breathes in the wind, whose voice is the murmur of 
the waterfall, and whose words are like the sound of 
many waters. The mists and clouds hide His Face 
when he is provoked by men, distant thunder is heard, 
and the storm breaks forth. Then men pray, and all 
is peace in the heart, for the anger of God is removed. 
So the bard sang on, and all sat breathless the while, 
when suddenly the door is thrown open, and the 
white-robed Druids, the priests, came in tumultuously. 
The cause of their coming is briefly related — " Yonder 
on the Hill of Slane is kindled a fire, and the royal 
law which forbids that any fire should be kindled 
before the royal fire at Tara be lit is broken by 
strangers." " What does it mean ? " demands the 



126 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

king. And the Druid answers : " It means that the 
fire which has been kindled before the royal fire will 
never be extinguished unless it be so this night. 
Moreover, it will conquer all the fires of our religion, 
and he who has lighted it will conquer us all, and will 
seduce all your subjects, and all kingdoms will fall 
before him, and he will fill all things, and will reign 
for ever and ever." In great wrath the king ordered 
his chariots to be prepared and taking his page, 
Eric, and his principal magicians, drives madly to the 
Hill of Slane, where the stranger had kindled his 
Easter fires. To pass over the marvellous details ot 
that interview, let it be sufficient for us to know that 
the stranger, whether Palladius or Patricius was his 
name, made an impression upon the king and his 
followers, and that the name and power of Christ 
silenced and subdued the Druid priests. 

Centuries later the scene of the principal festivities 
of Erin was swept away by some untoward disaster 
or rupture between the tribes. The popular legend is 
that Teamhair was cursed in the 6th century by the 
abbot Ruadhan because the Ardrigh refused to 
return a poor wretch who had been torn from the 
altar where he had sought sanctuary. Whatever 
may have been the cause of its fall, it is certain that 
its desertion led to the disintegration of the Gaelic 
nation. " Its tribes," as Moore has said, " can no 
longer be said to have had any common bond of 
union between them, any Pan Gaedalon, where they 



TARA'S HALLS. 127 

could meet in harmony, and be reminded of their 
common origin." Tara was no longer used as a 
royal residence, or a centre of national life. The 
tribes naturally fell asunder, the Spirit of Erin 
passed away. Patriotism, in the larger and grander 
sense, died a violent death. And the land became 
the prey of any roving bands that chose to mix 
themselves up in the intestine feuds of the tribes. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 

Starting from Nenagh, the ancient A enach Urmhum- 
han^ the market-place of the tribes of East Munster 
for centuries, where an hospital for Augustinian 
Canons, Tyone^ or St. John's House, dating from the 
1 2th century, lies in ruins, and leaving behind us the 
lofty and massive circular donjon of the Butler's keep, 
a conspicuous object for miles round, still bearing 
marks of the great fire of 1688. when Long Antony 
Carrol, Sarsfield's officer, burnt it to cover his retreat, 
we come out on the Limerick Road. As we ride 
along we pass by on the left hand a splendid 
specimen of a rath, an ancient house, and an interest- 
ing watchtower, through which an ivy tree has 
burst its way, so that now a strange mixture of 
tree and tower on the verge of the glade bursts 
on our view. This find bids us halt and dismount. 
We first approach the house on the hill. As we 
draw near to it, we are astonished at its size. 
Although in ruins, we can infer from what remains, 
the massive stones of which it is built, the extent of 
ground it covers, and the thickness of the walls, that 
it must have been the house of some person of 
consequence. 



AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 129 

As we walk along the field we come to the tree- 
tower we have just described. This was evidently a 
watch tower, being too small for anything more. 
There are many remains of such towers in the neigh- 
bourhood of Nenagh ; but it is hard to say to what 
age they are to be assigned, if not to the days of the 
O'Carrol greatness ; perhaps they are much more 
recent than we believe. But as we turn our steps 
down the field the antiquarian's appetite for the 
historic will be satisfied with the sight of two splendid 
raths, one encircled by a grove of tall fir trees, and 
the other consisting of a huge grassy mound. The 
country people regard these places as sacred, they 
will not touch a berry that is taken from one of them, 
much less move a sod therefrom. They also tell us 
that wherever we see one there is another within 
sight of it. This is, indeed, true in many places. For 
it was in this way that the ancient Irish laagered. 
Marking out a circular space of ground sufficient for 
their wants, if possible near running water, they dug 
a deep, wide fosse all round, and heaped up the earth 
they had taken from the circumference towards the 
centre where their chieftain pitched his tent. Within 
these entrenchments they were safe for the night from 
the attacks of their enemy, who could only hurl 
their missiles from a distance at a foe they feared 
at close quarters. Of course, if the occupation of the 
place was intended to be permanent, the earth- 
works would be on a larger scale — the mound or 

K 



130 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART, 

mote"^ which we have just described being nearly thirty- 
feet high — and the surrounding fosse would be filled 
with water. In some cases, as at Rathurles, the demesne 
of Colonel Brereton, a friend of the writer, there was a 
double circle of entrenchments, an inner and an 
outer, and water running through both channels. 
Such places were doubly secure. As sufficient has 
been said on this subject we may resume our journey, 
and make for Killaloe. As we ride along we skirt 
on the right hand a pleasant pastoral country, rising 
to a gentle but respectable height, while on the left, 
the sombre shadows of the Silvermines form a barrier 
that is broken now and then by gaps, and diversified 
here and there with shrubby hillocks and dales, until 
it gradually opens out into a pretty valley, at the 
bottom of which the rail runs now. This is Birdhill 
and, our road lying to the right, we are shut out for 
the nonce from the view of our picturesque surround- 
ings, until we are brought face to face with the dark 
blue range of the Keeper. And so we travel up hill 
and down dale in the blithest fashion until we come 
out on the banks of the Shannon, and a charming 
landscape opens before us. Indeed we might say that 
from this point the country is unsurpassed in beauty- 
The river making a wide detour and throwing both its 
banks into the foreground, is spanned by an ancient 

* The word mote, Irish mota, signifies a high conical mound. 
See Joyce, Irish Names, p. 290. Westropp Guide to Irish 
Antiquities (Science and Art Museum), Part V., p. 19. The 
word moat which may hke it be connected with the French 
motte, hiil, means dike. 



AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 131 

bridge of many arches, crowned by the turreted 
steeple of its venerable cathedral, while a purple moun- 
tain range forming an impressive background, and 
the romantic groves and waters of Lough Derg 
stretching far away into the distance, add to the 
attractiveness of the picture. 

Arriving at the village of Ballina, the ancient Bel- 
an-atha, or town on the ford, we cross the great stone 
bridge that leads us to the town over against us, which 
is no less than the historic Killaloe, one of the most 
ancient in Ireland, principally known now-a-days as 
the Paradise of Anglers. Some philologists tell us 
that the name of Killaloe signifies the Church of St. 
Lua or Molua, grandson of a Munster king with an 
unpronounceable name, who founded here an Abbey 
and a See in the sixth century. Kili-da-lua would 
then be the proper form of the word. Others, 
however, tell us that the meaning of the name is '' the 
Church upon the waters." Whatever be the interpreta- 
tion of its name, the place has been the residence of a 
Bishop since 639, when St. Flannan was consecrated. 
Another and later name, Claresford, the ford of Clare, 
given to it by Richard de Clare, who got possession 
of it in the 1 3th century, is preserved in the designa- 
tion of the episcopal palace, within the beautiful 
grounds of which may be seen a fine specimen of an 
Irish cross, which, by the way, was brought from 
Kilfenora. 

While here we may inspect the ancient cathedral, a 



132 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

cruciform structure, with a heavy square tower in the 
centre, which is said to have been built by Donald, 
King of Limerick, in the middle of the 1 2th century. 
Parts of this building seem to belong to an earlier 
date. And the tradition that a church on this site 
was repaired by Brian Boroihme, the monarch of 
Ireland, seems to be verified, by appearances at least. 
In the nave is a highly ornamented Romanesque 
doorway, now walled up, thought by some to mark the 
tomb of Brian, but evidently leading into another and 
more ancient building, which has long disappeared. A 
curious old slab of stone is laid across the threshold of 
this door. The east window is very fine, consisting of 
three lancet windows, the central light being rounded 
at the head. To the north of the cathedral, and 
within the same enclosure, is a still more ancient 
edifice, now called the Oratory of St. Molua. This 
was evidently a church. The roof, highly-pitched and 
of stone — as the old damliaghs were — has been 
recently renovated. The door at the west end is 
rounded at the top, where it is narrower than at the 
base. Its deeply moulded arch-springs form two 
short columns, on the capitals of which are grotesque 
figures in which some see resemblances to an elephant 
and a baboon. In the gable is a corresponding 
window, rounded at the head, and narrowing towards 
the arch-spring. At the east end is a large opening 
with pointed Gothic arch, apparently the entrance to 
another building. Such is a brief and very inadequate 



AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 133 

description of an ecclesiastical structure which should 
be seen to be admired. Taking a small boat — called 
in these waters a cott — we put out across the river, 
and land in a few minutes on what seems to be a great 
tangle of thickets, bramble, and brushwood, untrodden 
by the foot of man, and after fighting our way through 
this scrub we find ourselves in front of one of the earliest 
Christian buildings in Ireland^ — St. Lua's Cell, or the 
Church on the waters. This miniature chapel lies 
north and south, its doorway is about 5ft. 3 in. high, 
is cut through a wall some four feet deep, and is 
narrower across the head, which is formed by one 
great slab of stone, than at the base, which is also a 
slab of stone. The entrance in the south wall of the 
tiny hermitage is cut in a similar fashion, without an 
arch. Within the little chapel there is a window, 
elaborately cut through the stone, four feet deep, a 
light set, as it were, in a four-fold frame of rock. The 
roof is also of stone, and pointed, rising some twenty 
feet high. It is much to be regretted that history has 
naught to tell us of the ancient worshippers in this 
small shrine, who doubtless did their share in an 
unostentatious way in spreading the light of 
Christianity among the unruly Septs of the West. 

The archaeological interest of the locality does not, 
however, end here, for below the bridge there is an 
ancient rath called Kincora, the headquarters of Brian 
Boroihme, or " Brian of the Tributes." Kincora 
represents the Irish words Ceann Coradh, or the head 



134 TYPES OF CELTIC LIFE AND ART. 

of the weir, and the name tells us that there was in 
olden days a weir in the river to keep the water at a 
sufficient height for the fish, which brought In a large 
revenue to the King of Munster. To this fort, or dun, 
the great Brian used to return in triumph from his 
raids and forays into Leinster, and Munster, and 
Meath, driving before him across the ford the Borumha 
(Boro), or the tribute of cattle he had levied from his 
beaten foes, and which gave him his name Boroihme. 
From this ford, Ath-na-borumha, or the ford of the 
tribute, the little town opposite Killaloe is called 
Ballina, which means the town on the ford, Bel-an- 
atha. The Four Masters tell us of the erection of a 
caher or stone fort here among other works of this 
monarch. Planted in front of a great wood, and on 
the brow of a steep headland, washed on three sides of 
its base by the Shannon, and commanding the salmon 
weir, Kincora gradually grew so important that it 
attracted the notice of the Connaughtmen, who were 
led by the O' Conors again and again against the 
" palace " of the O'Briens, and ultimately with success, 
for we read that they destroyed the outworks, burnt 
the timber, threw the stones into the river, and ate the 
salmon. All that now remains of this residence of 
kings is a large circular mound, crowned with trees, 
and encircled by a dike almost filled up. 

The sides of the high vallum slope gently towards 
the west, where there is an entrance and steps of 
large unquarried slabs of stone, which once formed 



AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT. 135 

part of a j^reat stairway leading within the enclosure. 
Here a so dier on guard could easily see any 
ship with t ^ serpent prow and the raven 
standard gliding round the pretty point of the 
lake, and give the alarm to the garrison. Here ad- 
mission was gained to the palace of the king, for which 
there was ample room in the large circular plot of 
ground, some thirty-five paces in diameter. It need 
not surprise us to find merely a few stray slabs of stone 
on the site of Brian's abode. For we are told that 
the dwellings of those days were made of wickerwork, 
with a covering of clay or earth, and had a white 
appearance. Such is all that we can tell of this 
impregnable fortress of the brave Brian, whose heart 
was stout to fight, and whose hand was strong to 
strike those terrible invaders, the Danes, the Vikings 
of the north. But fancy can fill the ramparts with 
the living forms of warriors, and the large hall of 
wood with the gleeman's song and the maiden's laugh. 
For those were gallant days, the days of tribal 
attachment, the days of daring courage in the chase, 
noble bravery in the battle, and gentle courtesy in the 
camp. There were tried knights then in Ireland, 
men who had taken the oath not to retreat before 
nine, not to take a dowry with a wife, not to betray 
a friend, refuse a civility to a stranger, or offer 
violence to a wayfarer. These were the Fenia or 
Militia of the king, his personal attendants in peace, 
his vanguard in battle. For many a time, when the 



I3b TYPES OF CELTIC lIFE AND ART. 

white sails of the Landleapers gleamed in the sun, 
did the battle grow dark on the blue waves of 
Lough Derg. Then the sons of Erin were convened, 
like the meeting of many waters, by the striking 
of the spear on the bossy shield, the shrill-sound- 
ing signal of war. Then the glittering brand of 
Brian was unsheathed, and lightened through the 
gloom of battle, and the invaders melted away before 
his fierce onset. Not seldom in the silence of night, 
under cover of the darkness, the terrible Danes, with 
the fire of slaughter in their eyes, stole darkly upon the 
host like gathering wreaths of mist from the water's 
edge -, and men were slain in their dreams, and the 
cry of the babe pinned by the spear to his mother's 
breast was mocked by the ruthless invader. Many a 
fresh tomb did the morning sun see on the heath, and 
the land dripping with gore, and the bards mourning 
for the dead. But for all that, the Dane was held 
back, and his city of Luimneach was taken by Brian 
and his men after Kincora had sunk to rise 
again from its ashes. So the light of glory 
passed from the halls under the old oak trees 
to the battlements and keeps of the " Barren 
land." Here no longer the chiefs dispense hospi- 
tality to the stranger at " The head of the weir,"and bid 
them " Go see the great feast in the dun." No longer do 
the freemen of the Dalcassian tribe, the " death or glory 
boys" of the loth century, whose motto was, " First 
in the field, and last to leave it," meet to elect their 



AN ANCIENT CELTIC SETTLEMENT, 137 

chief in the forest glades ; no longer do the young 
men assemble for battle or sport, or, after the chase in the 
woods of the lake, bring back the deer which their high- 
bounding dogs have followed to the feast in Kincora. 
The harps of the minstrels are no longer unstrung, and 
the voices of the maidens are no longer uplifted in 
praise of the brave, or in songs of the sweet long-ago 
in the echoing halls. The wassail no longer is raised 
from the festive board ; for Kincora is no more. But 
a characteristic record of ancient splendours of 
Kincora is preserved in the Munster welcome, " Were 
mine the boire of the Dane, or the wine of Kincora, it 
would be poured for you." Mangan, a modern Irish 
poet, translated the ancient lamentation over the fall of 
the king and his mighty men, made by Brian's own 
bard MacLiag, in verses which suspire with the wist- 
fulness and sympathy of the Celtic spirit. 

" O where, Kincora ! is Brian the Great ? 

And where is the beauty that once was thine ? 
O where are the princes and nobles that sate 

At the feast in thy halls and drank the red wine ? 
Where, O Kincora ? 

They are gone, those heroes of royal birth. 

Who plundered no churches and broke no trust ; 

'Tis weary for me to be living on earth. 
When they, O Kincora, be low in the dust, 
Low, O Kincora." 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

The Mystery of the Cross : Studies in our 

Lord's Last Passion. 

" A carefully written narrative of the 
events of Holy Week. . . Of consider- 
able expository service." — Guardian. 

*' A solid contribution to the cause of 
sacred literature." — Church of Ireland 
Gazette, 

"Stimulating and suggestive." — Irish 
Times. 

" A volume which all can read and 
benefit by." — National Church. 

Clement of Alexandria. 

" An excellent account of the life, the 
writings, the teaching and surroundings of 
a truly lovable man." — Guardian, 

" An original and very searching study." 
Church of Ireland Gazette. 

S. Augustine's " City of God " : A translation 
with notes. 



The Foundation of the Hospital and 
Free School of King Charles IL, 

OXMANTOWN, DUBLIN, 

Known as the Blue Coat School, with notices of some of its 
Governors, and contemporary events in Dublin. 

BY 

The Ei^ht Hon. SIR F. R. FALICIfMER, K.O.p 

Some time Recorder of Dublin. 



ROYAL 8vQ., iLLUSTRATED 7s, Sd. 



The King's Hospital, which is the first and only School of Royal 
Foundation in Dublin, was from its origin and till the passing of the 
Municipal Corporations Act, 1840, under the direct government of the 
Municipal Authority. It owed its birth to the sad condition of the country 
after the twenty years of war and rebellion in the time of Charles I. and 
the Commonv/ealth, and obtained its Charter from Charles II., through 
the influence of the Duke of Ormonde and his son Lord Ossory, after the 
Restoration. The object of the book, whilst tracing the annals of the 
School during its connection with the city, is to show its connection all 
through with the government of the city and incidentally with the great 
events and personages of the country during the above period. 




ABETHAN IRELAN 



NATIVE AND ENGLISH, 

By G. B. O'CONNOR. 



Crown Svo, - - - 3/6 



PRECIS OF CONTENTS. 



The arrangement, which is unusual in this species of work, was selected 
with the object of placing before the reader a presentation of Elizabethan 
Ireland and its inhabitants as they would have appeared to an observer at the 
time. The opening chapters give an exhaustive representation of the physical 
aspects of the country and towns, buildings and communications, not omitting 
the climate ; the racial and physical characteristics of the people, their mode of 
living, dress, and amusements, domestic customs, and social and political 
conditions ; emphasising the points of agreement or difference between the 
two nationalities. With the view of elucidating the native attitude to the new 
conditions sought to be imposed by English administrators, a chapter is devoted 
to the Brehon system of laws (especially relative to land proprietorship) and 
society. Thus as it were furnished with all necessary information, the reader 
is introduced to the domestic and political administration of the English 
oflBcials. The feuds and actions of chiefs and nobles, their characters as a 
class, and effect upon the English connection, are also discussed, the contention 
sought to be established being that then, as now, the land question was the 
vital one. The ever recurring question of Ireland as a factor in English foreign 
relations is treated more from the native aspect. Illustrating both domestic 
and foreign policies, stress is laid upon the personal equation of the officials 
regulating them. In the chapter devoted to the religious question, the former 
Irish relations with Rome, ecclesiastical properties, and the actual condition of 
religion, both previous to and after the attempt at the substitution of the royal 
for papal supremacy is outlined. As was inevitable from the unsettled state of 
the period, the chapter devoted to Irish soldiers and Elizabethan warfare is the 
longest. Without being a mere recapitulation of battles and sieges the actual 
trend of hostilities is not lost sight of, and the determing effect of English sea 
power on their result is given due weight. 

The concluding chapter on the Armada Massacres is in refutation of the 
allegation that inhuman brutality was shown by the West Coast natives. A 
long list of authorities, quoted and utilised, is given with, in the introduction, 
reasons for preferring some to others, usually considered to be authentic. A 
large-size map of the period and copious index precede and conclude the 
volume. 



DROM AN A : '^' "^Timiiy! '" '"'' 



BY 



THERESA MUIR MacKENZIE 

(Theresa Villiers Stuart). 
Crovin 8vo, Illustrated, 5Si net. 



*' This unpretentious volume possesses the prime quality, often absent from 
books of this kind, of being thoroughly enjoyable. It is a bright, racy, 
readable account of the Irish Fitzgeralds and their descendants. The volume 
is well illustrated with views and portraits .... is well printed on good 
paper and is appropriately bound in Emerald Green." — Glasgow Herald. 

" The authoress has given us in this book a very readable record of family 
history. The part which the Geraldines played throughout the different 
centuries of warfare in Ireland is, indeed, a considerable part of the history of 
Ireland itself. We think we have said enough to induce all those who are 
interested in Irish family history to buy a copy of 'Dromana,' which indeed 
is a most valuable work strikingly illustrated." — Kerry Evening Star. 

" Dromana on the Blackwater is an ancient and finely placed seat of the 
Fitzgeralds, where their descendants have held possession for five centuries. 
One cannot wonder that Mrs. Muir MacKenzie, herself a daughter of the old 
house, has been inspired by the venerable portraits and the ancient within its 
walls to tell its story. Thomas Carlyle brought away from the Castle of 
Dromana the happiest of his Irish memories. Mrs. Muir MacKenzie has thrown 
round it the air of romance and of genuine history. " — Scotsman. 

'* The gifted authoress of the work informs the reader in her foreword that 
these memoirs were gathered together in a great measure for the sake of 
making a link between the past generation to whom Dromana descenoed in 
unbroken succession for five hundred years and generations yet to be born. 
That she has fulfilled that aim the pages of the handsome volume before us 
amply prove, and we believe her trust is not misplaced, that a large circle of 
readers will be found for these memoirs." — Waterford News. 

"The subject teems with interest, being the ramified history of the 
Geraldine family." — Cork Constitution. 

"The writing of this book has evidently been a labour of love to the 
liuthor. Posterity will thank her for her labour." — Irish Times. 

"Mrs. Muir MacKenzie's charming story of the illustrious owners of 
Dromana is preferable to a ponderous family history." — Independent. 



The bloody BRIDGE, 

and Other Papers relating to the Insur- 
rection of 1641. (Sir Phelim O'Neiirs 
Rebellion). 

BY 

THOMAS FITZPATRICK, LL,D.p 

Author of "The King of Claddagh." 



This work embodies a course of studies on the chief aspects of 
a movement which has been strenuously distorted and misrepre- 
sented by so-called historians from the days of Jones and Temple 
to those of Carlyle and Froude, or even later. 

The special feature will, perhaps, be found in the very great 
amount of matter extracted by the Author from T.C.D. MSS. — 
Depositions, Letters, Diaries, Despatches, etc. — and more 
especially in the uses to which, in the present undertaking, these 
are applied. 

Whereas, heretofore, the prevalent notion has been that the 
Depositions relating to the Insurrection of 1641 constitute ''the 
eternal witness " of an " Irish St. Bartholomew," the present 
Author's contention, is, that, on the contrary — and in spite of 
the original purpose — the refutation of such a charge may be 
found in the very papers which the Temple-Froude school of 
writers claim as their own. 

That the worst things connected with the Insurrection were due 
more to State policy than to any design on the part of the 
Insurgents is shown in the Tenth Paper. 

" The book is, indeed, a very effective piece of special pleading, and will 
have to be carefully considered by all future historians of Ireland, who aim at 
being accurate and above partisanship." — Spectator. 

" To the students of the painful confused chapters of Irish History, it will be 
of considerable value." — Antiquary. 

" It will be of the greatest importance that all possible light should be thrown 
upon these depositions, and the manner in which they were obtained." — 
Literary World. 



THE IRISH-AMERICAN HISTORY OF 
THE UNITED STATES, 

From the Earliest Times to the Accession and First 
Presidential Message of His Excellency Theodore 
Roosevelt* 

In Forty-six Chapters, with Copious Notes and References. 
By the Very Rev. John Canon O'Hanlon. With Sixty Por- 
traits of Illustrious Americans, Twenty-five War Maps, and 
Complete Coloured Map of the United States. Preface and 
Table of Contents, pp. i. to xxiv. Text of Chapters and Notes, 
pp. I to 667. Appendix and Index, pp. i. to Ixxxviii. Imperial 
4to. 25s. 

*' The research involved in the preparation of this work must have been very 
great, and the volume is a notable achievement of industry and knowledge. 
In addition to the tremendous range covered by this beautifully printed 
volume, it is furnished with 60 portraits of men whose names take a prominent 
place in the History of the United States, with 25 War Maps, a general Map 
of the States, an appendix that would represent a moderately sized volume in 
itself, and an index, a single page of which suggests a comprehensive encyclo- 
paedia rather than a history of a country, the authentic story of which only 
runs a few centuries in duration. — Northern Whig, Belfast. 

" We heartily congratulate Canon O'Hanlon on this latest product of his 
industrious pen. The amount ot reading and research that this work gives 
evidence of is stupendous, and we thank the author for the diligence which 
has provided us with a v/ork long desired — a full and accurate history of the 
origin and development of the great American Republic. As the title of the 
book may mislead our readers, we inform them that Canon O'Hanlon's work 
is a comprehensive history of the great North American territory and peoples 
long before the United States had left the regions of possibility, to the first 
years of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Thus the opening chapter deals 
with the early Irish traditions of Hy-Breasail, the great Western Land, the 
Scandinavian traditions on the same, and the voyages of our early Irish saint 
and hero mariners in search of the Land of Promise. The probability of St. 
Brendan's acquaintance with America, and of an early Irish Christian settle- 
ment there, is discussed with much learning and research, and the sketch of 
the growth of the Brendan literature and of the influence of the Brendanite 
traditions an European voyagers-^-on Christopher Columbus and Vespucius — 
is as interesting as it is profound." — Irish Ecclesiastical Record. 

*' That every useful work bearing upon the work has been consulted, is 
demonstrated not only in the text, but in some three or four thousand 
notes and references." — The Nationalist* 



IRELAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 

Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of 
Elizabeth, being a portion of the History of Catholic 
Ireland. By DON PHILIP O'SuLLiVAN Bear. 
Translated from the Original Latin by Matthew 
J. Byrne. Demy 8vo. CI. Boards. 7s. 6el. 

"Will no doubt be justified by becoming of importance to the Irish 
Historian of the future." — Spectator. 

" A work of no small value, which is interesting not only from the wider 
historical point of view, but for the many side lights it throws on the minor 
details of the life of the period." — Antiquary. 

"There is no more fascinating epoch in Irish History than this." — 
Dundalk Democrat. 

" A very valuable production. Of Mr. Byrne's style of translation we 
cannot speak too highly." — Cork Sun. 

" One of the most important pieces of contemporary history relating to 
the troubled and exciting period of the Elizabethan Wars in Ireland." — 
Literary World. 

"The book is valuable to the historian as giving impressions of the exiled 
Irish Chief, and the sort of information given in Catholic Europe about the 
state of Ireland." — The Athenceum. 

*' Mr. Matthew J. Byrne is to be congratulated on the distinguishing 
excellence of his translation of this section of the historical writings of Don 
Philip O'Sullivan Bear."— r^^ Cork Constitution. 

*'The Story of the Rebellion, as O'Sullivan sets it forth, is full of interest 
for the historian and the philosopher. National character changes but little 
with time." — New Ireland. 

*' An exhaustive index increases the usefulness of the book, as well as the 
appendix on Irish Arms. The text also is illustrated by a reproduction of an 
old Map by John Norders, between 1609 and 161 1, now preserved in the 
State Paper OfEce, London." — Westmeath Independent. 

" The book is a most interesting one. The opening pages provide an 
index to the complete work of O'Sullivan Bear, from which we see that the 
earliest chapters were introductory, and dealt with such subjects as the 
situation and characteristics of Ireland, St. Patrick's Purgatory, the Irish 
Language, the customs and religion of the Irish, and an outline of the English 
invasion, with the beginning of the heretical tyranny, of which our author 
always speaks so bitterly, I am very pleased with the translator's preface, and 
with the general map in which he has set out O'Sullivan Bear's original title 
page, and dedication to the King of Spain, together with his eloquent and 
poetical address to the Catholic Reader. This is a book not to be perused, 
ijut to be read, that one may muse on the lessons it contains, lessons applicable 
to every moment of the present hour." — United Irishman. 



